Gome World

The Birth of Another set of Triplets!

One of the most exciting parts of writing a new story is to see the cover designs.  All of a sudden the story that was in your head has the look and feel of a real book.  You can see what it is going to look like and can imagine people holding it in their hands and enjoying it.  It really comes to life.  And since my second adventure with Finn, Hadley, and their scruffy, rude, bad-tempered companion Wullie-The-Mahaar-Gome is another trilogy it feels as though I am giving birth to another set of triplets!  EJ Angel, the cover design artist for my books has an exuberant style.  She reads the stories and then asks me to list some of the most memorable scenes or events in each book.  She then designs a vibrant abstract collage that merges those images together.  Finally she superimposes the faint image of a grumpy and enigmatic rock creature in the corner.

The title of the story is Twilight Cave but you won't know why until the second book in the series.  Book 1 is called The Scourge of Catalonia.  Catalonia is a region of Spain in the northeast of the country close to France.  The great Mediterranean city of Barcelona is in the heart of Catalonia and the story opens with a dramatic scene in Parc Guell, a wonderful place featuring lots of mosaic sculptures designed by the famous Catalonian architect, Antoni Gaudi.  Gaudi also designed the massive cathedral, Sagrada Familia which was started being built over a hundred years ago and is not finished yet!  Much of the story takes place in a rich country estate called Segovia with a white mansion surrounded by olive groves and vineyards.  I hope you like the cover of this book which captures images from all of these places and has a feel of whimsical artwork and bright summery Mediterranean light.

In the story Finn, Hadley, and a group of kids from the Magnolia Academy of Arts and Science (MAAS) are invited to spend a couple of weeks at the Segovia estate which is owned by a rich Spanish art collector and sculptor called Baltazar Mendoza.  During their stay some of the kids are taken on a caving trip in some of the amazing limestone caves underneath the mountains near Montserrat.  During this caving trip Finn disappears and the adults believe that he is dead.  It turns out that he has been captured by some evil gomes who take him deep underground to the great gome city of Barcelunda. 

If you want to learn more about Twilight Cave; The Scourge of Catalonia (Book 1) and hear me read the opening chapters go to:

http://gomeworld.typepad.com/gome_world/2008/03/the-scourge-of.html

Book 2 is called The Depths of Barcelundaand for the cover of this story EJ created a very different feel.  Barcelunda is a very dark, smoky, scary place.  There are long tunnels and boreholes with stalactites and stalagmites.  Everything is gray and smoky.  Evil magicians create potions in little glass bottles.  Certain sections of the city are kept behind massive iron gates.  Where the city comes close to the cliffs at the edge of the mountains the pale light of the moon filters in to create an eery twilight feel to the place.  I hope you like the cover of this book which I think captures the atmosphere of Barcelunda very well.

Although the grown ups think that Finn has fallen to his death in a big sink hole in the cave, Hadley and her Catalonian friend, Alina, are sure that he is still alive.  With the help of Wullie-The-Mahaar-Gome they set off to try to find where Finn is being held prisoner.  It turns out that the gomes are feeding Finn sludgy mud and poisonous drugs to try to turn him to stone.  In a very elaborate two stage ceremony the gomes will then bring Finn's petrified body to the remote and desolate Island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland where they plan to smash him to smithereens at the Great Standing Stones of Calanais.

If you want to learn more about Twilight Cave; The Depths of Barcelunda (Book 2) and hear me read the opening chapter go to:

http://gomeworld.typepad.com/gome_world/2008/03/the-depths-of-b.html

In Book 3, The Weird of CalanaisHadley, Alina and Wullie need to travel to The Island of Lewis to try to prevent Finn from being destroyed.  They meet up with Wullie's best friend Alexander Clambucket Targomshie of Calanais (Big Sandy to his friends) to seek out the great gome-witch Mhairhidgh Dubh (which, of course, is pronounced Varry Doo).  Mhairhidgh Dubh gives then a potion that might re-direct the power of the Barcelundan sludge that has petrified Finn.  But to make that potion the witch requires them to accomplish three tasks...

The cover of the book shows the mountains and rocky waterfalls of the Scottish islands along with a sinister castle in the background.  In the foreground are treacherous peat bogs and the enigmatic Standing Stones of Calanais that were raised over five thousand years ago, long before the great pyramids of Egypt.  The bird in the top right hand corner is one of the most feared of all the bird predator; Catharacta Skua, the Great Skua, known by locals as the bonxie.  A pair of these fierce birds guard Varry Doo's layer.

If you want to learn more about Twilight Cave; The Weird of Calanais (Book 3) and hear me read the opening chapter go to:

http://gomeworld.typepad.com/gome_world/2008/03/the-weird-of-ca.html

Gomeworld Sourcebooks

In my stories about Wullie-the-Mahaar-Gome and his human and gome friends and enemies I am creating a whole universe of characters and fantastical events.  I hope that you will enjoy reading them and that they may inspire you to write stories of your own.  Perhaps you enjoy one of the characters in the story but would like to hear more about him/her/it.  Maybe you'd like to write a short story or an extra chapter about the world of gomes.  To make that easier my publisher (Orchard House Press) has asked me to write a "Sourcebook" that accompanies each of the new trilogy adventures.  These Sourcebooks give background information on the characters and explain some of the strange things that you read about in the books.  The idea is that these Sourcebooks would give you the information to create additional characters or new story lines using some of my characters while still sticking true to the ideas that are developing in my stories.  The firsts two of these Sourcebooks (one to accompany The Blackhope Scaur story and one to accompany The Twilight Cave story) will be published in the Spring of 2009.

I would NOT recommend that you read any of the Sourcebooks until you have read the actual story otherwise it would spoil the adventure for you.  But once you have read the story and would like to get more background information to be able to write new adventures I think you will find the Sourcebooks to be helpful.

Although I am not the greatest artist in the world I have done a few sketches in the Sourcebooks to give you some idea of what the characters look like in my imagination.  Here is a picture of the mysterious gome Jade-Tsi-Dong working in his magic potion shop trying to divine the value of a particular petraglif.

Blackhope Scaur: The Rusty Pelican (Book 1)

I am writing a whole series of scruffy, rude, bad-tempered mystery adventures involving Wullie-The-Mahaar-Gome, Finn, Hadley and various other more unsavory characters.  These are being published by Orchard House Press, a wonderful publisher with a great philosophy.  They publish wonderful, original, quirky, interesting books for people of all ages.  You can check them out at http://www.orchardhousepress.com/ .

The first series of Wullie-The-Mahaar-Gome stories is called The Blackhope Scaur Trilogy.  The first story in the trilogy is called The Rusty Pelican.  When I was asked to help design the cover here is what it looked like in my imagination:   Hmmmmm, my imagination is a bit too hazy and pale.  I can hardly see it.  I wanted to show Wullie in the background as a "larger-than-life" character" and also show the rusting barge catching fire out on the water of Puget Sound.     I think you will agree that the design that the Windstorm artists came up with is much more dramatic and easy to spot.

 

 Here is a summary of what it is about:

For Finnley McDougall Sixth Grade homework is boring and dumb.  He is having enough trouble impressing his mom, hiding from his Latin teacher, and surviving Alex Drivelson, the school bully.  The last thing Finn needs is more essays on Mesopotamia.  What he wants is more action and adventure than his quiet neighborhood in Seattle can provide.  But when Great Uncle Hugh McDougall arrives from Scotland, he gives Finn a most unsual gift - a scruffy, rude, bad-tempered Scottish rock creature called Wullie who brings danger and disaster with him wherever he goes.  From French snobs in fancy hotels to urine-soaked alleys and rusting barges on the Seattle waterfront Finn is drawn into an evil plot that threatens to destroy everything he loves.  The only person who thinks that Finn is smart enough or brave enough to make a difference is his best friend and next door neighbor, Hadley Kobayashi, a girl who is wiser and tougher than Finn is.  If only they can survive being choked by Lavender perfume, drowned in Elliott Bay, or burned alive in a coal furnace, Finn and Hadley might just prove everyone else wrong.

Here I am reading the first chapter of the story.  Chapter One is called, The Dark Watcher.

Now here is the second chapter of the story.  Chapter Two is called, Sixth Grade Homework.

The Weird of Calanais

The third part of The Twilight Cave Trilogy is called The Weird of Calanais.  That's a weird kind of a title for a book!  In this case the word "Weird" is an old word for a witch and the word "Calanais" (which is pronounced "Callanish") refers to a mysterious and spiritually powerful place on the Island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.  Here is a summary of the story:

Finnley McDougall's fourteen year-old body has been turned to stone.  Barely clinging to life he is transported by sea from Spain to the Western Isles of Scotland to be crushed to rubble amidst the Standing Stones of Calanais.  Dozens of evil gomes and humans will profit from Finn's destruction.  What can Finn's best friend, Hadley, and their scruffy, rude, bad-tempered companion, Wullie-The-Mahaar-Gome, do to save him?  Nothing... unless they can find the gome witch, Varry Doo, survive attacks by her midges and bonxies, catch the biggest trout in Loch Eggerness, sneak past the attack guard geese at Cragganbogle Castle, rip the moustache of a sleeping Spaniard, and survive the embarrassment of Hadley's mother's naked Druid dance under the Midsummer moonlight.  It won't be as easy as it sounds.

Here is the first chapter of the story.  Chapter one is called Schemers In The Mist:

The Depths of Barcelunda

The second part of The Twilight Cave Trilogy is called The Depths of Barcelunda.  Here is a summary of the story:

Finnley McDougall wakes to find himself being held as a prisoner in an underground cave in Spain.  He is surrounded by evil gomes who keep him drugged with weird sludgy food.  Far above, his parents think he had died in a tragic caving accident.  But Finn's best friend Hadley Kobayashi believes that Finn is still alive.  With the help of their scruffy, rude, bad-tempered companion, Wullie-The-Mahaar-Gome she sets off to find Finn and rescue them.  They discover a massive underground city where thousands of wicked gomes and some crooked humans are plotting to use Finn for their evil purposes.  If Hadley can avoid being drowned in underground lakes, branded by molten metal, tormented by Wullie's sarcasm, stabbed by poison-tipped gome spears, or crushed in the Rock Pit of Torture and Justice maybe she can rescue Finn and get them all out alive.

Here is the first chapter of the story.  Chapter one is called Strange New Companions

The Scourge of Catalonia

I have just finished the second trilogy of stories featuring Finn, Hadley, Wullie and their friends (...and enemies).  It is called The Twilight Cave Trilogy and takes them from Seattle to the hot steamy exotic Catalonian mountains in Spain and then to the remote, cold and wet Western Isles of Scotland.  The first part of the story is called The Scourge of Catalonia.  I hope that you won't be put off by that odd title.  You might want to look up the word "Scourge" in a dictionary.  It is a great word to add to your vocabulary so that you can drop it into casual conversation to impress people!

Here is a summary of The Scourge of Catalonia

A beloved sculpture is stolen by an acid-spitting gome in Barcelona.  A smart, brave, fourteen year-old girl deals with her father's ditzy girlfriends in Seattle.  A doleful sandstone gome battles guard geese at Cragganbogle Castle on the Western Isles of Scotland.  When Finnley McDougall's Seventh Grade class is invited to spend a vacation in Spain these unlikely events are drawn together in another mystery adventure featuring Finn, Hadley, and their scruffy, rude, bad-tempered companion, Wullie-The-Mahaar-Gome.  If Finn and Hadley can survive bullies, grumpy teachers, evil Spaniards, stinging sculptures, weird food, squealing bagpipes, and dangerous caves without fighting with each other and falling out maybe they can figure out what is going on.

Here is the first chapter of the story.  Chapter one is called Poisonous Graffiti

Here is the second chapter of the story.  Chapter two is called The Messed-up Celtic Love Knot

Blackhope Scaur: The Doomed Castle (Book 3)

In Blackhope Scaur: The Doomed Castle, which is the third and final part of The Blackhope Scaur Trilogy the action moves to Edinburgh Castle on the last night of the Military Tattoo. My idea of what the book cover might look like was this:

 

Here is the actual cover:

Here is a summary of what the story is about:

The Edinburgh Military Tattoo:  Hundreds of squealing bagpipies, gymnastics, battle re-enactments, a military fly past, laser shows, fireworks all out on the castle esplanade and seen be floodlight.  It should be the best vacation ever, a dream come true for most thirteen-year-old American visitors.  But for Finnley McDougall and Hadley Kobayashi it is something to dread.  Somewhere a gang of greedy, cruel humas and three armies of evil gomes are planning an attack somewhere in Edinburgh Castle.  They have a bomb.  They have a helicopter.  They have a hatred of humans in general and Finn and Hadley in particular.  They have thousands of Lignites, Graywackies and Slag Piles on their side.  What can two small children and one very small, scruffy, rude, bad-tempered gome to do stop them?

Here is a bonus chapter for the story.  This was going to be the first chapter of the story, but we ommitted it in the final version.  This chapter is called, The Dark Watcher's Fury

Here is the second (or now the first) chapter of the story.  Chapter Two is called, From Zen Master To Fay Wife

Blackhope Scaur: The Abandoned Mine (Book 2)

In Blackhope Scaur: The Abandoned Mine, which is the second part of The Blackhope Scaur Trilogy the action moves from Seattle over to Scotland. This is my idea for what the actual book cover might look like:

The artists at Windstorm had a much better idea of how to convey the flooded quarry, the rugged hills, the threat of a missile, and yet with Wullie still looming in the background.

Here is a summary of what it is about:

A summer vacation in Scotland: weird food, ancient castles, people you can't understand, fabulous candy, rugged hills, sandy beaches, cross-eyed hotel waiters and tacky gift shops.  What's not to like about that for two thirteen-year-old best friends from Seattle?  Plenty, with parents who are self-centered goofballs or overbearing worry-warts.  And somewhere around them an evil plot is being put together by a gang of European crooks to hurt them all and destroy the pride of Scotland.  Finnley McDougall and Hadley Kobayashi bring with them clues that don't make sense from the secret book of Bluebeard-The-Pit-Bing-Gome.  They reconnect with Wullie, the pocket-sized, scruffy, rude, bad-tempered rock creature who got them into all this trouble in the first place.  If they can just figure out the connection between Gimpy, Slushbum, Stottermou, The Scaur o' Blackhope, a psychotic helicopter pilot, a slobbering Tasmanian Rhino hound, a flooded quarry and an abandoned coal mine, maybe they will be able to prevent the crooks from stealing the heart of Scotland and destroying the city of Edinburgh and everyone in it.  Including them.

The next chapter is called The House At Moray Place

The next chapter is called Breakfast At The Burntfield Hotel