Precious Things.

It's only taken 5 years for me to finally claim the cupboard under the stairs as my own, but now that we are moving and have had to get the house ready for viewings, I've done it! And the thing that I love about it the most is that I finally get to have an author shelf.

Here it is. A lovely shelf of purple loveliness.

I love it and I thought you might be interested to hear a little bit about it. So from Left to Right here is a tour around my shelf.

Far Left: This beautiful hand-pressed woodcut is from the Witches House in Salem Massachusetts U.S.A. This was brought back from Salem this summer by my very dear friend Alison Stacey. We taught together for fifteen years and became more family than friend. She has been alongside me on this crazy journey right from the very start. She has never doubted. Always believed and I can't wait until she retires next year so that she can come on many U.S author road trips in the years to come.

The reason it is here is because my newest series, The Meadowsweet Chronicles is partly set in Salem, and the main character, Jeremiah Chase is a descendent from one of the original Salem Witch Hunters.

Middle: This small laser cut piece of paper art is from the Porte du Secrets exhibition centre in Paimpont, The Foret de Broceliande, Brittany. It depicts the forest and standing together in conversation, the wizard Merlin and Morgan Le Fay. The Forest of Broceliande is one of the primary settings of book 3 of the Knight Trilogy. Home to Merlin's Tomb, The Crystal Lake, The Knights Templar Chapel, The Valley of No Return, The Fountain of Eternal Youth, the forest of Broceliande and Paimpont is a magnet for all those who follow the Arthurian legends.

We go camping each year in Paimpont (Or Paint-Pot as it's affectionately become called by my family) and I drag the hubby and the two Mud-Puddles around all the various Arthurian landmarks, much to their excitement LOL.

Right: This selection of semi precious stones, Rose Quartz, Amethyst and Cornelian are some of my favourite stones. I'm a believer in Earth energy and I find them both beautiful to look at and calming. I like to be surrounded by beautiful things, and for me, semi-precious stones are some of the most beautiful things to be found in nature.

Right Top: This is where my author life began, with the writing of 'The Forest of Adventures'. When I began writing it, I truly believed that this was my one and only novel. It was a story I had been wanting to write since my own teenage years and there is so much of myself and my teenage experience woven into the pages of this dark fairy tale. I had no idea with the writing of those first words that I would go onto write and publish a further 8 books, countless short stories, travel around the world as part of an amazing book world, become the founder of a really special publishing company and the creator of a UK book convention.
For a long time I hid this book away. It's not the very best of my craft, little could I have known how much I would grow and develop as a writer, but I've come to acknowledge that it is the very best of my soul - and now it sits proudly as a reminder of where I started and where I have travelled to. This book will always be the most special of all of them.

You can find out more about me and my books over at my official website www.katiemjohn.com

So what's on your special shelf? I'd love for you to share in the comments box.

First kisses.

When I declared the legal statement that all events in my book were the invention of the author, I told a little bit of a white lie. (Well I'm an author - what do they expect?) There is a scene in 'The Forest of Adventures' which is based on a true event: it was the event of my first kiss. (That is also a bit of a white lie too - my technically 'very first kiss' now resides in the Fraudian filing cabinet in a folder called 'Traumatic Childhood Accidents'.)

Here, however is the event I have chosen as my official first kiss. (And as I am author of my own lifestory, I get to choose the narrative sequence.)

I was sixteen - okay, so that 'childhood accident' put me off for a while. It was February and it was snowing, which perhaps explains my romantic pre-occupation with snow. Strangely the kiss itself has refused to stay - I think because I was transported to a different galaxy when he actually kissed me - but those precious, heart racing, slip-sliding moments before he actually reached forward and placed his lips on mine have stayed with me ever since; enough to make it the turning point in my heroine's destiny.

"Rejecting his help, I struggled to my feet, hot blood rushing to my cheeks. I could barely think how I would be able to look at him, and when I finally managed to brave it out, all I could see was an amused and curious smile dancing over his lips.

Snow began to fall and, whether it was the blood rushing to my head, or the effect Blake had on me, I had the sudden feeling of being turned slowly upside down inside of a snow-globe." Time slid; the snow fell in slow motion and Blake looked deep into my eyes. I was transfixed on a single snowflake that was balanced on one of his long, dark eyelashes. His brown eyes were the only promise of warmth in the whole landscape." Chapter 4 'The Forest of Adventures'

What is beautiful about being a young adult is that when these moments happen you live the poetry of the moment - as if you are outside observing the film of your own life. Orchestral scores really do burst out of the heavens, your eyes become various camera shots, you really are able to feel and live metaphors on the spot.

There is no need for nostalgic romanticising - it was really like this, and perhaps this is why I refuse to put the inner adolescent to bed. To hide it away as if slightly ashamed by the silliness and impulsivity of youth. Perhaps this is why I choose to write YA fiction, to always allow the opportunity for my YA self to have a voice - because the adult world can become so pragmatic and cynical; Snow can just become cold and a travel disruption; Kissing just an exchange of custom on leaving the house for work; Eyes just something we use for reading the bank statements or watching television.

As long as my YA self is kept alive then who cares if it's one that is slightly delusional, slightly romantic, slightly silly - at least it's one that feels the passion of life. This is why I love the whole notion of Valentine's Day - because it's a day when there is the potential to write our own poetic scene and be young and beautiful again.

Six Sentence Sunday

The Forest of Adventures: Book One of the Knight Trilogy

1) "He came with the snow."

2) "It was a rough and rugged beauty; a colouring of the skin, a face that had been hewn from a wild cliff face, a darkness of the eyes, full of latent storms and solitude."

3) "Snow began to fall and, whether it was the blood rushing to my head, or the effect Blake had on me, I had the sudden feeling of being turned slowly upside down in a snow-globe."

4) "The unstoppable collision of wills and destinies had been triggered, and only Death would now put an end to it"

5) "He stepped forward and as if tripping a wire, the whole scene errupted into a frenzied cacophony of steel on steel."

6) "Oh, sounds complicated," he said suspiciously."

Currently just 99c on Kindle at Amazon.

http://www.theknighttrilogy.com/

Beautiful Freaks: Due out Spring 2012

1)"Both the century and its Queen were dying."

2)"The city had become a landscape of monsters both of flesh and brick."

3)"It was amongst this labyrinth of sorrow that Kaspian Blackthorne walked."

4)"When he looked closer at her, he could see she wore a monocle in her left eye and was at least ten years younger than he’d guessed from the first impression."

5)"He was expecting horror; the sight which greeted him was nothing short of beautiful."

6)“They’re calling you a witch.”

Informal Q&A Vlog interview