Q: Of the books you have written, which is your favourite?
A: That has to be The King’s Odyssey, published in 2021 by Veneficia Publications.
Q: What is it about?
A: It is a fantasy adventure set when druids and witches worked with the energies of nature in what is now Dorsetshire at the beginning of Anno Domini. It is the quest of a king from Vindocladia searching for his young kidnapped son and heir. A vision from an oracle gives him cause to visit the Island of the Dead across the bay where his adventure takes a turn when he is imprisoned and forced to quarry the fine Portland Stone. Then he meets the high priestess Bridget and her coven.
Q: Why is it your favourite?
A: The King’s Odyssey is my first journey into writing a novel and ten years in the making. The story echoes my own experience in returning to my hometown from Poole after made redundant from my job, the closing down of an art gallery I volunteered at and the suicide of a close friend within weeks of each other. If I had not been able to make it to Portland, then neither would have King Rufus.
The king’s wife had died a short time before the story begins and echoes the death of my then girlfriend in a motorcycle accident. The witch and high priestess is influenced by my fiancé who I met after splitting up with the character who plays Morr’igan who also had a great bearing on the ogre Lorac. The loyal captain of the King’s army and Rufus’s best friend is Griff Richards, the spirit of my good friend, Richard Griff. The hobgoblin is entirely a figment of my imagination; the animals play themselves except Lucifer, Bridget’s cat who acts as I would if I were a cat.
Q: Tell me a bit more about yourself and any other books you’ve written.
A: I consider myself as a druid in a witch’s hat. I was initiated into the Cotswold Order of Druids at the Winter Solstice private ceremony at Stonehenge 2019. Locally I am a member of the Portland Wytches and Clan Dolmen; a group consisting of mainly witches, heathens, shaman and pirates. My beliefs centre around druidry, witchcraft and the ancient texts of the Vedas and Mesopotamia whose deities are the root of many of the classic gods and goddesses we know of today. I see the world in a constant dance between the powers of the spirit and matter realms playing out in our consciousness creating our individual reality.Also from Veneficia is two booklets from their Dark Devine Feminine series, Ereshkigal – The Dark Side of Venus (2021) and Kali the Destroyer (2023). I have also contributed to several anthologies for Veneficia Publications including 7 Deadly Sins (2023), So, Do We Have a Deal? (2022), A Gateway to Summat of Other (2022) and Voices from the Ashes – Resurrection of the Wytch (2020) all available from Veneficia Publications, Amazon, Waterstones and other major book distributers.
From Moon Books, my first ever book, Ishtar and Ereshkigal – The Daughters of Sin (2020) with over 1,000 copies sold to date, explores the complex dynamism of the opposing forces of the Babylonian Goddesses of Love and Death. Also the recently released The Magic of Serpents (2023) that explores the many levels of understanding the meaning and symbolism of the ancient snake who has slithered across the planet since the time of the dinosaurs. I have contributed to several Moon Book anthologies including Seven Ages of the Goddess (2018), Pagan Planet (2016) and Naming the Goddess (2014), available from Moon Books, Amazon and other major book distributors.
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