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Projects in Hand

The Rune Reminder (Revision)
An expansion and improvement of the popular Rune Reminder e-book.

I will be editing and occasionally changing the photographs and images to improve their appearance at higher magnifications. This will include re-sampling of the photo captions that at the moment look a bit jaggy, even at quite modest resolutions.

I will be adding about a dozen new pages interspersed amongst the rune descriptions under the generic title Runemaker Ramblings in which I will offer some more in-depth comment on points of interest.

All past buyers will be afforded the opportunity to update to the revised edition at no additional cost.
 

Spreads and Casts for the Rune Diviner
This will be a companion e-book to the Rune Reminder, similar in size and format.

As the title suggests, I will be describing the rune spreads and casting methods from the runemaker.com pages, plus a few more methods that I have unearthed in recent months.

The e-book will be fully illustrated with diagrams and photographs. I expect it to run out at about 30 pages in all and will be offering it for sale at US$4.95.
 

Rune Fonts
If you care to take a look at the downloads page you will see several packs of rune fonts that I have designed. In response to recent enquiries I am working on two new font styles to be named RuneSerif and RuneSlender and a bunch of 6 new graphic fonts.

RuneSerif as you will probably have figured out will be a Roman-style font and will be available as a pack of 5 varieties. Probable price £13.45.

RuneSlender will feature narrow staves and hopefully will be useful in emulating carved or incised runes in graphic images, such as ancient runestone monuments or messages carved with a knife on a flat stick of wood. This offering will again be available in a pack of 5 varieties. Probable price will again be £13.45.

The RuneGrafic pack has proved to be very popular and I intend to expand the range by introducing another pack consisting of 6 new graphic-style fonts:

• Herald - each rune represented as a heraldic design with the rune glyph emblazoned on a shield.

• Woodworker - the runes represented as battens of wood nailed together

• Mosaic - the rune glyphs drawn as if they were mosaics such as seen in Roman floor and wall decorations.

• DropCap - each rune presented in a decorative rectangular border making them suitable for use as "drop capitals", which are often seen as the illustrated first letter of a new chapter in a book.

• Nouveau - each rune drawn in the Art Nouveau style of the late 19th and very early 20th century.

• Deco - each rune drawn in the Art Deco style of the 1910s to 1930s.

Probable price for this pack will be around £17.95 to reflect the size and artistic complexity of the content.

The Ancient Art of Heraldry
My current publishers Regency House produce beautifully illustrated books of which Discovering Runes is one of the latest. They are always on the lookout for attractive additions to the series. During a recent meeting they learned that Heraldry - coats of arms, shields and family crests, etc. - was another of my passions and they suggested I might think about a book on the subject.

It's really nothing more that an idea at the moment, but I am doing some basic research with the objective of putting forward a book proposal to them. Watch this space . . .

Runehunter
If and when I ever get this novel written it will be my first work of fiction for more than 40 years.

The plot is a past-and-present adventure. The chapters alternate between 5th century post-Roman Britain and 21st century Europe.

In one timeline we are following the fortunes of Rothrick, a 5th Century boy of mixed Celtic and Saxon parentage and his struggle to reconcile his Celtic upbringing with his Saxon runic heritage. While in the modern timeline his present-day descendant, coach tour guide Will Roderick tries to retrace his ancestor's steps and uncover the generations-old puzzle of his family's involvement with the runes, dogged at each step by mysterious enemies.

The climax takes place in modern-day Czech Republic where our intrepid hero finally confronts his adversaries and faces the truth about his ancestral secrets.

As you have probably guessed, the book relies on elements of my real family history and of my early career as a coach tour guide. Hopefully this will lend some authenticity to the background and settings.

When will it be published? Well, if it ever DOES get published it will be at least a year from now. If I can't sell the finished manuscript to a decent publisher I will once more resort to the self-publish or e-book route.

The plot is sketched out and the characters have been outlined, but I haven't even finished a first draft yet, so don't hold your breath!