Katherine Roberts

Katherine is very excited because she has just won a copy of “Dido” by Adele Geras in the Bookette’s draw. It arrived in the post today, making a change from bills and leaflets advertising local supermarkets. She’s delighted to win this one because: She loved Adele Geras’s other books set in the same period “Troy” and “Ithaka” She doesn’t know the story of Dido (yet!) She’s met Adele!!! …Pause for small prod with my glittery horn to remind her of her manners… Katherine would like to thank: Random House and David Fickling (who published the book), the Bookette for doing a wonderful week of interviews with Adele Geras, and of course Adele herself for writing the story. The Muse's review of this book will be posted in July.

Katherine has been working hard rewriting her Genghis Khan novel, but still found time to read a few books this month. Starting with the spooky… Crybbe – Phil Rickman This book is set in the border country between England and Wales, where Katherine used to live. The town of Crybbe is fictional but could be any small market town of the area cut off from the rest of the world by lack of transport links, with the result that the locals view anybody from more than twenty miles away as a foreigner. In addition to this, Crybbe is overshadowed by a strange hill with a curse that sucks the life out of its residents. When millionaire music tycoon Max Goff buys Crybbe Court and tries to turn the town into a New Age centre by reinstating the old standing stones, he wakes a vengeful ghost in the shape of Black Michael, a previous sheriff infamous for his dark experiments that involved hanging innocent people to feed the power of the ley lines. Against this supernatural backdrop, local radio journa...

The Muse is proud to report that The Great Pyramid Robbery is Katherine’s first pirated book! It appears on several sites for download (I won’t encourage the pirates by listing them here) and downloads appear to run into the thousands. Katherine of course receives no payment for these copies and nor does her publisher, which means no golden oats for me… so why is my horn glittering? 1. Because it proves people want to read this book, even if they can’t afford to buy a copy or can’t find one. The latter is understandable, since the GPR does not (as yet) have an American edition so all of its 30,000 sales so far have been in the UK or export markets. It’s also been nine years since its first publication so libraries might have cleared out old copies as they fall apart and not been able to replace them. 2. Because it's free advertising! If people enjoy the pirated version then they might want to get hold of the much more beautiful print edition produced by HarperCollins with a sp...

Following her winning entry in the Song Quest cover contest, the talented Daria has been busy working on two more covers for the other two books in the Echorium Sequence, Crystal Mask and Dark Quetzal. The Muse is very excited to post them here, along with her original winning entry. Thanks Daria… I am sending you a Glitter Award!

The Muse has created this special Glitter Award for bloggers who post in the spirit of the enchanted mists. So if your blog includes... fantasy & science fiction (books, films, games) fabulous artwork poetry spiritual stuff magic myths and legends enchanted creatures anything else mysterious, beautiful or otherworldly ...you might see one come your way! If you accept this Award, the Muse’s rules are: 1. Tell us your favourite Book Film Poem or song Myth or legend Enchanted creature 2. Add this award to the sidebar of your blog with a link back to this blog/post. 3. Recommend another blog you think would make my horn glitter. If you don't want to pass it on, that's fine - but the magic dies if you keep it under your bed for too long! ( I will then add this blog to my list of nominations and send an award over to those that make my horn glitter the most when I next do a round up ). Katherine’s favourites are Book: Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien Fi...