Author Watch – Land of Midnight Days – Katrina Jack

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Hello, my name is Katrina Jack, author of The Silver Flute Trilogy. Thanks to the lovely Linda for allowing me to tell you a little about myself and my writing.

I began writing at the age of fourteen, mostly short stories to begin with. However, after joining my first writing group, called Rose Lane Writers, I eventually moved on to writing novels. To say they were bad is an understatement. Filled with bad grammar, over description and splattered with adverbs, they were all over the place. I also had no idea what to write about and tried my hand at crime, romance sci-fi and so on.

That said, my favourite genre had always been fantasy, but I had the same problem. I had no idea how to create an original story and had no writing style to speak of. This meant I unconsciously copied other writers’ styles. Then one day all that changed, when I had a lucky windfall and invested some of it in taking a masters degree in creative writing, at John Moore’s University in Liverpool, where I live. The course taught me about technique and how to discipline my writing, so that it became tighter and far less rambling.

Despite being armed with this new knowledge, I still had no idea what genre I wanted to write in, until I ended up in a hospital for a week! During that time, a kind friend brought me the first book from Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden series – I was hooked! The urban fantasy genre was fairly new back then. I’d certainly never read a book like Butcher’s, with its mixture of mythology, Faerie and magic, all set against the contemporary backdrop of present day Chicago. But it worked – beautifully – and I knew I had to attempt my own urban fantasy. But how to begin?

At the time, I worked in a call centre and during a lull I was staring out the window at the iconic Art Deco Littlewoods building in Liverpool, where I live. I was thinking what a good setting it would make for a story and began to speculate on how to go about it, when it became busy and I forgot about it. I didn’t think about it again, until a few days later when I was listening to my favourite 70’s rock band, Jethro Tull. Inspiration struck like a lightning bolt and the main character of Land of Midnight Days, Jeremiah Tully, was born.

As he took form in my mind, I began to sculpt out his personality: he was a talented flute player, he had telepathic abilities, but above all, he was mute. The only way he could communicate was via his music. He was also mixed race, half human/half Elwyn (my version of an elf). He lived in a world filled with “norms”; the average human and full blooded Elwyns, who had no time for misfits like him.

I then created a “cast” of other characters, after which I then began to “paint” the world they lived in, using certain aspects from the great city of Liverpool to establish locations. And so Land of Midnight Days was born and subsequently, Through the Gloaming and Dawn Horizon. All three books have been published by Ecanus Publishing and are currently available to buy as ebooks or hardbacks from

http://goo.gl/dasz9y Amzn UK

http://goo.gl/E8uZnR Amzn US

In conclusion, I’d just like to say to any budding writers out there, keep on writing, keep on sharing, and above all, never give up.

 

So, what do you think ?