It seems hard to believe that it is now over a month since I last sent you an email to be posted on our website.
An eventful late March & most of April has found me travelling through France visiting Albi & Carcassonne as part of my research into the medieval heresies that brought down on their believers the full power and venom of the established catholic church.
I am now resting for a few weeks in Paris enjoying the beauty of Spring in this city & humming that well known tune under my breath. Even occasionally playing it & others of a lyrical nature on my rather battered Selmer 6 tenor saxophone on the banks of the Seine, mostly it has to be said, to the delight & enjoyment of the tourists of many nationalities who visit here at this time of year.
I'm posting 2 more chapters on the website & tonight, being World Book Night, my cousin is officially announcing the existence of my novel on Facebook.
Sometime, unsure when, this novel & I will have our own Facebook page.
Best wishes & springtime greetings from this wonderful city.......
I almost forgot to mention that some kind of announcement of the existence of Albion's Children on Wattpad will be 'posted' on Facebook some time in the next week. An event I look forward to with interest and a little anxiety....
Against my better judgement I've put a synopsis of Albion's Children up here. Apparently this may make it easier for people to find. Not quite sure how that works or how to get a synopsis of a novel that currently looks like it may run into at least 3 books into 2000 characters....
My cousin has kindly designed a cover for Book 1 -Blue. I quite like it as I feel it gives a sense of the abstract and multilayered quality of the book.
Go well.
An interesting encounter with a fellow traveller while travelling from Nice through Provence led me to the village of Dormillouse in the Haute Alpes where I was able to continue my research into the Waldensian heresy and met with one of the few remaining descendants still living near where those unfortunate men, women & children were persecuted & hunted centuries ago.
The only way in or out of the village is by a track that climbs steeply from the car park to the houses above with stunning views of the glacier and snow covered mountains as the main road slid into the valley many years ago. The snow is slowly melting with banks of snowdrops & crocuses & other early mountain flowers appearing.
The village has no mobile or internet connections so I was unable to post anything there. I am now in Villeneuve sur Lot staying with an old acquaintance of mine with all the facilities of the connected world.....
I'm currently making choices as to which sections of Albion's Children I should put up next. A decision is expected soon.
My cousin Gordon informs me he will shortly create a Facebook page for me, an event I look forward to with interest and some anxiety. Though it may make communicating with my 2 'fans' a little easier and increase what I believe is known as my 'profile' thus the number of readers and potential 'fans' for The Children of Albion.
I trust that, wherever you are, life is as good as it can be.
How time passes when you're travelling.
It's over 6 weeks since I left Paris in late April & travelled to Dormillouse. Since leaving the village I retraced my route to Paris to leave my saxophone with friend & thence have spent time moving through Holland visiting art galleries, museums & libraries searching for traces of the lost portraits of the Pig by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Reubens, David, others & of course, most famously, Picasso. Nothing concrete but a few scraps of information & some sketches that may lead eventually to an actual painting. I've also been investigating the Pig's early life in 17th century Rotterdam. There are so few real facts to go on but some useful possibilities have emerged.....
I then left Holland behind & have been slowly journeying North through Denmark & Sweden hitch hiking, catching buses & walking. Spending my nights in hostels, small hotels or often under the open sky & the stars wrapped in my down filled sleeping bag . Feeling late winter sliding into spring.
In a few days time I will cross into Finland and thence to northern Norway where I plan to spend the summer solstice in the company of some Sami shamans that I last saw over a decade ago.
My cousin Gordon contacted me today as luckily I had checked my emails on the hotel computer here in Boden. A beautiful Swedish town near the Finnish border.
He mentioned that he had posted some information about my novel on his Facebook page (though so far he hasn't created a page for me, but promises to do so 'soon') & reminded me that it would be good to keep the chapters flowing onto this site. As he put it "to build a following". Though I do not consider myself to be any kind of prophet, teacher or purveyor of digital snake oil.....
So, my small band of readers, here are 2 more pieces of the jigsaw.
Once in Finland I am planning to stay still for a couple of weeks and, who knows, I may continue working/writing/compiling some of the many fragments of this novel.
The completion of the first book (Blue) now seems, though still distant, a possibility ......
Go well.