The Realm of Katherine Vick

I'm doing something slightly different with this month's blog - offering up a smidgeon of deleted material from The Disposable. Don't get too excited, it's nothing epic or revelatory as I'm not one of life's deleters - generally if I remove something, it's to rewrite or replace it rather than to extract it altogether so the majority of my deleted material folder is simply alternative versions of existing scenes, not totally unseen bits of writing. There are one or two exceptions however, and one is part of Dullard's first appearance in The Disposable . Writing this scene was a joy and a delight as Dullard sprang into life for me and material spewed forth but as a result, the scene was just a bit overlong and I pulled out a couple of unnecessary paragraphs to tighten it up. The below is one of those sections, often a touch more background on Dullard's place in his family, and honestly, I don't think I've looked at it since the day I pulled it ...

  It's here!!! It's release day, Ladies and Gentleman - the quirks of Amazon permitting (obviously), The Narrative should now be available to buy in the US and the UK! UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Narrative-Plot.../dp/B0BGSGN9ZF US: https://www.amazon.com/Narrative-Plot.../dp/B0BGSGN9ZF

  For you lucky American bods - in honour of the imminent release of The Narrative, the eBook of The Disposable is now on sale on Amazon! https://www.amazon.com/Disposable-Plot-Bandits-Book-ebook/dp/B0854QDX5D

I present some pre-release tasters for you! For anyone who would like to hear Flirt and Shoulders's thoughts on their present situation, their character interview can be found here: Character Interview - Flirt and Shoulders For anyone interesting in reading about me wittering on about my upcoming release,  The Narrative , my author interview on this matter can be found here: Author Interview for The Narrative And a small piece of daftness produced by an actual fan of my book! Yes, they exist! :) Disposable Mambo And of course for those unwilling to wait politely until November 15th for the paperback, links are available to allow you modern bods to Pre-Order the ebook now on Amazon! Links to Facebook Pre-Order Post Amazon UK eBook Pre Order Amazon USA eBook Pre Order

In honour of two weeks to go until the release on Amazon of my third Plot Bandits novel, The Narrative , I thought I would offer up a little taste of what is to come by presenting an extract from the book itself! I hope it whets the appetite a bit. :) ***** Shoulders had never heard a pair of horses scream before. He hadn’t been aware that they could. He could also have lived with­out finding that out. Somewhere nearby, he could hear Flirt yelling, his bouncing head catching glimpses of her flattened out and clinging with an alarming amount of desperation to the seat of the cart she had so abruptly set into motion. He could hear the angry and, thankfully, fading roars of the chasing Barbarians. He could hear the pound­ing of hooves, the screeching of cartwheels that were reaching the limits of their endurance, the clatter and rattle and tumble of the sacks and barrels loaded in the cart’s rear that vanished with an occasional dusty crash, presumably as they were flung into the road. ...

COMING one month today - The Plot Bandits Book Three (of Four) - THE NARRATIVE! Due for release on Amazon on 15th November 2022! O r those unwilling to wait politely for the paperback to become available - THE NARRATIVE Kindle eBook version is now available for Pre-Order. :) USA: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BGSGN9ZF UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BGSGN9ZF

  Three Books That Changed My Life I’ve seen a great deal of posts and memes asking about what books have changed people’s lives and the way a person reads. Every individual will, of course, answer that question differently and choosing just a few is so incredibly hard as, like it or hate it, everything we read affects us somehow. But I was challenged by a friend a while ago to come up with some and so, here they are: ;p Dragons, Giants and Witches (Usborne Story Books) If there was an author, I don’t know it, I’m afraid it doesn’t say, but I know it was an Usborne book because so many of my childhood books were. My mother ran Usborne book parties and bought for me from her stock and I’m so glad she did as they were wonderful things. Books of stories, of mythology, of history, of science, of knowledge – I picked up so many of my basic interests in life from those quirkily illustrated pages. But the story book Dragons, Giants and Witches (alongside, Princes, Wizards and Gnome...

 It’s Ask the Author time again! This month’s questions both come from Sarah Awa , that you for asking! I shall now attempt some answering, though can’t guarantee they’ll be much help! If you were a character in your books, what type of character do you think you would be, or want to be? I’m 99.9% sure I would be nothing more exciting that Background Villager Number 3! ;) In terms of looks, I am so fundamentally Ordinary looking I would certainly never make it to any of the more glamourous levels! In terms of want to be – I feel like swashbuckling adventure ought to appeal and probably would have done more in my younger days but in reality, knowing myself as I do, I’d probably find the performance anxiety of that kind of forefront role much too stressful! I suspect I’d be best suited to some minor position, rather like Dullard, so I could be left mostly to my own devices! I am good at organising things but less good at pushing people around so I’d probably make a decent Priest ...

In last month’s blog, I discussed the dilemma of the fantasy writer in creating a different world – how different exactly does one make it? I concentrated specifically on matters of time but that is far from the only consideration when one is crafting a whole new world out one’s imagination. For beyond the temporal, as indicated by the original title of this blog (can you tell it got a bit away from me in the writing? Typical! I’ve split my novels and now my blogs!), there is also the cultural. All fantasy realms have their own cultures, sometimes based on the historical or geographical cultures of our world, sometimes a thing in and of themselves. That is a fantasy world standard – indeed a necessity – and isn’t what I am referring to. I’m talking about the imbedded social things that most people wouldn’t even think about. From my cultural perspective, a nod is yes, a shake of the head is no. Thumbs up is positive, thumbs down is negative. Waving is a greeting or a farewell. Eating ...

 The thing about creating a fantasy realm is – it’s a different world . Yes, I know that sounds self-evident. But when starting work on any kind of fantasy story, it needs to be borne in mind because it places the author immediately into a dilemma. How different exactly? A different world means different rules, that fundamentals of life that all its readers have in common don’t necessarily apply. Take units of time for example. Is the length of our day the same as a fantasy world’s day? Do they measure time as we do in hours and minutes and seconds? Do they follow the same turn of seasons, the same months, the same year? It's a tricky one. On the one hand, upending these basics makes one truly feel that the place in which the story is taking place is alien and different. But on the other, it upsets the audience’s equilibrium. They are used to the old ways. Having to remember this world they are reading about has different rules can actually be jarring, it can push a reader’s b...