Fi Phillips

January has not  gone to plan. So far it's been a month of coughs and colds, snow and rain, and administrative annoyances. Destiny, fate or whatever you would like to call it has decided that my writing should go on the back burner while I tie up a whole orchestra of strings left dangling from 2012. I'm recovering from a chest infection and walking in a rather wonky fashion because of an injured back so I have decided to put off starting the third draft of my novel until February. In the meantime, I will tighten my chapter plan and seek inspiration from my favourite writers by revisiting their novels. One of these writers is Terry Brooks. I found Brooks through his novel 'Magic Kingdom for Sale/Sold' and later through his contemporary fantasy 'Word & Void' trilogy. Brooks has a subtle voice that never distracts from his stories and his characters are as flawed as the rest of us. Visiting his website , I found that he had also written a non fiction book...

"The meadow in which he sat spread away before him in a carpet of muted greens, blues and pinks, a mix of colours he had never seen in grasses. The clover was white, but touched with crimson spots. The meadow dropped downwards into a sprawling valley which rose again miles distant in a wall of mountains that formed a dark barrier against the sky-line. Behind him, the trees of a forest loomed blackly against a mountain slope. Trailers of mist hung over everything." from Magic Kingdom For Sale/Sold by Terry Brooks "By now the whole of downtown Morpork was alight, and the richer and worthier citizens of Ankh on the far bank were bravely responding to the situation by feverishly demolishing the bridges. But already the ships in the Morpork docks - laden with grain, cotton and timber - were blazing merrily and, their moorings burnt to ashes, were breasting the river Ankh on the ebb tide, igniting riverside palaces and bowers as they drifted like drowning fireflies towards t...