Rae of Light

The Main Characters Brueberon – A very lonely over-sized dragon in need of a friend. Clarissa Henry – An extreme reader who dreams of worlds other than the one she lives in. Kastaspella – A dastardly witch who detests Clarissa and hopes to make her life even more miserable than it already is. A Book Is Born My intention was never to write a children’s book. Before I started working at Inkhead I actively avoided little children quite simply because I was afraid of them. Okay, terrified is more accurate a description. As a teacher I stuck with teenagers. Despite their erratic qualities I related to them very well. Perhaps I was still a teenager at heart. Ultimately I assumed my writing would focus on teen and adult themes. At the time I was already writing the first in my Sci Fi series and was almost done with the final edit of my debut novel. So I was a little stunned to find myself writing The Lonely Dragon . I’m even more surprised now to find myself producing a ...

I rarely make New Year’s resolutions as I’m so busy trying to finish off tasks already on the go. Everything tends to carry through to the next year, particularly when it comes to my writing. I know resolutions are meant to be about the personal but my writing and I are so closely linked that inevitably, it ends up being one and the same. This year is no different. I’ve got several projects on the go. My plan was to publish a Robert Deed Collection last year which puts all the Deed books into one volume. Unfortunately due to a spate of migraines during November and December that plan didn’t quite pan out. I am however very happy to report that the e-version of this collection is now available for you to buy. Since you are a select bunch you get the opportunity to purchase it at a reduced price from 1 – 5 February . This is because February is my birthday month and I love to give presents as much as receive them. So here for you is the link for this limited offer.  ht...

The Witch Adoption Project , the cheeky little fantasy upstart won the battle of the genres. Scifi fans were just not fast enough with their trigger fingers to topple this young lady from her perch on high. She will now be the WIP I work on for next year once Palindrome is published this summer. The main battle was fought on my Facebook page and she won by 31 votes. Here is her successful plea to the public. As you can see, she shamelessly used her youth to pull the voters in. Hi there My name is THE WITCH ADOPTION PROJECT and I'm a WIP sitting in a folder on Rae's laptop. I want more out of life. I don't want to stay a draft forever more. I want to be published. So I'm appealing to you dear followers to support my cause and vote for me. Yes I'm young. Yes I'm precocious. But age is only good for wine and cheese. I'm neither. The rest is now up to you. You know what you have to do. The Witch Adoption Project is the seq...

The main task for the start of this year is to complete the final edit of Palindrome . My aim remains to publish this prequel to Six Dead Men in the Summer. Once this is done there are several projects I could be working on for next year and beyond. But which one should be my main focus for 2019? Help me out dear readers!  Please vote for the book you’d most like me to work on for publication in 2019. The hopeful contenders are: The Witch Adoption Project When Rainbows Dare This week’s post will state the case for The Witch Adoption Project . It  is the sequel to  The Lonely Dragon  [ TLD ] and continues the tale of Clarissa, Bruberon & Kastaspella. While  TLD  was set mainly in Bruberon’s homeland, this story centres on Clarissa’s life now that Jocasta Spellatrix (aka Kastaspella) has become a member of Clarissa's family. It is a coming of age story which also focuses on the trials and tribulations of a young girl forced into the...

I managed to finish ahead of time which was a small miracle to be sure So last year I foolishly set myself the challenge of reading 100 books in a year.   I wasn’t really thinking clearly and the number 100 just popped into my head when I spotted the challenge on Goodreads .    I won’t be doing that again because it was an almost impossible task and I hate setting myself up to fail.   Luckily, I didn’t fail but that was predominantly down to the help of my wonderful students. I don’t do New Year’s resolutions, but I do try to do something different or learn something new every year if at all possible. This year I’m opting to do things a little differently.  I’m giving myself a very practical challenge combined with one I know is going to be filled with fun.  So firstly I’ve decided that if I want to fulfil my ambition of eventually retiring to an Italian island I’d better improve on the smattering of Italian I currently ...

Ever since Indie (formerly known as Autharium ) closed down in February this year I’ve been trying to sort out the republication of the two books I had published through them.  I found myself hesitant and uncertain of which direction to take.  Should I once more tackle the traditional route or should I persist in my stubbornness and continue to self-publish? I took the opportunity to rework the books I’d previously published and at the same time continued working on new projects.  But I know that deep down I’ve been dithering and feeling a little unsettled about the whole process.  After all, Indie had sorted out the two things which terrified me:  formatting the text and royalties.  I would now have to tackle these on my own along with front cover design and marketing.  by Nathan Vidler I’ve been extremely lucky in the front cover stakes.  For my first novel ( Six Dead Men ) a friend’s son used an image from his unive...

Now it's back to writing about my writing process and it's time to focus on the antagonists I write. It seems I don’t mind having male and female antagonists even though I’ve plumped so heavily for females in the protagonist camp. Robert Deed ( Six Dead Men ) Terence Ire ( Six Dead Men ) Zaq ( Where Rainbows Hide ) Irina Bushka ( Where Rainbows Hide ) The Authorities ( When Rainbows Cry ) Kastaspella aka Jocasta Incantata ( Of Dragons & Witches series ) Grief/Brairton ( Sharp Dark Things ) Robert Deed’s name in this list may well surprise you.  Let me explain.  To begin with, his main aim is to prove Madison Bricot guilty of her boyfriend’s murder.  The twists and turns of the plot however mean he ends up sharing protagonist status with Madison.  He ultimately has too sound a nature to be the villain and his role shifts to that of the main romantic interest.  But then, that was my aim all along, to trick the reader into t...

So who are my protagonists and why do I want to write about them? To answer this question I have to look at who they are. Madison Bricot ( Six Dead Men ) Neera Luxquaera ( Where Rainbows Hide ) Petra Sucher ( When Rainbows Cry ) Clarissa Henry ( The Lonely Dragon ) Alanna Webber ( Sharp Dark Things ) Rowena Deed ( Palindrome ) Detective Inspector Robert Deed ( Palindrome ) The first and most obvious thing to note is that all but one of my protagonists is female.  I’m not against a male protagonist.  I just understand what it is to be female and so write what I know. Now time to take a closer look at my characters and why I create them. Madison Bricot is an insecure young woman who has the ability to kill with a kiss.  If you rearrange the letters in her name they spell out the Italian phrase for ‘kiss of death’.  She was most certainly born out of my own insecurities and fears I’m sure.  When I look back at the things I wrote...