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MY Current Projects

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Jackalberry Brook:

​“This Jackalberry tree in the Southern African Highveld, torn from the ground by a thunderstorm, or possibly a flash flood, now crosses this gentle brook like a city bridge. And in some ways that is exactly what it is, for here in the remnants of its branches and roots we can see the complex cosmopolitan society of the undergrowth. We don’t often see this tiny world that way, but when we meet its inhabitants face to face we suddenly realise that their behaviour can be just as meaningful as the behaviour of many animals our own size.

An earwig, yes, but also a female and a mother, guarding her young. Two ants are not quite sure of each other; stroking antennae is the equivalent of a cautious chat over the garden fence…

And the humble cricket, singing a tragic song….”

Wist had lost it all, his father in the unyielding web of Malician the Orb-web queen, his illusions in the lacklustre reaction of Jackalberry Brook’s arthropodian folk. There was nothing left for him here… but there are other regions.

The only problem is, to get to them he has to cross the Borderlands where Baboon Spiders, Scorpions, predacious beetles and other things with stabbity-bitey-type mouthparts lived.

Just like he had to shed his exoskeleton, Wist has to shed his fear and maybe, just maybe, pick up a few friends along the way.

Yet Jackalberry brook is no ordinary place. It calls its heroes back, even if they don’t know they are heroes. And even if they do not really want to go back.

The Elvenor Volumes: Genesis

The Elvenor Volumes began after a real life horror story akin to the Joseph Fritzl story (2008) broke around 2006. When I heard of the atrocities committed there I thought: What if a whole people were kept like that? What if they changed, what if...?

Within a week I had the skeletal outline of a trilogy, (though at that stage I thought it would be one book, as you do). My knowledge of classical fantasy was abysmal at this stage, having grown up in a house that knew little of English literature.

I enjoyed fantasy, but at that stage I had not even read any Tolkien yet. I have since caught up, in spectacular fashion, and have read not only Tolkien (even The Silmarillion), but also Robert Jordan, Glen Cook, Terry Pratchett, Joe Abercrombie, Patrick Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson and many, many more (both classic and contemporary). To my dismay I found that my story was about as unique a story as James Cameron's Titanic. 

Later I discovered Plato's Cave and found that it made my story practically ancient.

But if you can't beat 'em... use 'em. And that is what I have set out to do, to the best of my ability, and with the utmost respect.

Deep Land 1: Black Land Gold Song

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Atlantis is under water and the last remaining fugitives are stranded on the coast of the unexplored continent. Arlan of House Lan leads the unwilling castaways in the new world.

Some of the greatest kings in the world reign here in the Deepland. The treacherous Ndele King focused on conquest so he could finally rid himself of the Ubombo and the Xoci Kingdoms, his only rivals in the land. 

Mandalewhetzi, the Ubombo king, is unawre of his rival's ambition as he Rides astride his Great Rhino to meet the new ghostly men who landed in the South.

As the events that will shape the Deepland unfold an even greater threat comes from the north, the fierce Zonkisi, who gain their power from devouring the flesh of kings...

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