Foresters Miniseries - Pilot episode

"Goddard leapt the ale barrels without breaking stride, vaulted the first table, dodged a chair in her path and slammed a drunk out of her way. 
‘Foresters’ she shouted, as if the mail and the harness didn’t give it away. She received a growl from the assembled, but no one blocked her. They knew better, spilt beer or no. She was the fucking law"

You'll recall that I was kicking off a new project - a bit of fun I'm calling 'Foresters'.
It's an episodic miniseries featuring a grubby trio of Nottingham lawmen, working one of England's most dangerous beats in 1191AD.

The Extract is the slightly longer-than-usual pilot episode to introduce a few recurrent characters.
It's big and brash and stupid but hopefully you'll agree that it's also a lot of fun.

It's a lot more 'police' than my Novel about Robin Hood, and this makes it a little more fantasy, a little less history, but think 'medieval cop-show' and you've nailed it.

As before, I feel the sudden need to mention that it is in no way a thinly veiled ramble through some of my own police experiences, seen through a flimsy historical filter (no, wait, that's exactly what it is).

Click here for Extract and enjoy, share, comment.
-Tom

photo by Roy Smallpage

A Nasty way to Start the Show

'Cutthroat' is my take on the Robin Hood legends. 
Its a grim low-fantasy reworking of the medieval ballads, drawing experiences and language from my time as a UK police officer and medieval reenactor.

I wanted to get the first three chapters up here to share with you, while I go through the process that everyone has to: trying to navigate the world of conventionally publishing it.
 As for the action: It covers the opening frame of the novel and  the drawing of William Scathlock into banditry and crime. It's a nasty look at how easy it is to step off the path and be lost in Norman England, and a good window into a world that wasn't all Disney and Costner and Merry Men

No golden arrows, no fights with giants, no heroes... just Cutthroats.

-Tom

photo by Roy Smallpage

Editing: Time at the Coalface

I actually like editing. There, I said it.
Most people hate chopping and thrashing through the process, not me; I actually like taking the hatchet to the text
I've spent a disproportionate amount of time editing over the last week, and those of you who follow me on twitter will have seen the result: a pale, shadow of a guy with a weird, haunted look who mumbles to himself about oxford commas and character progression.
By doing this I've hammered the first chunk of Cutthroat into a really neat self contained extract, and I'm actually rather proud of the result.
I'm also going to make sure there's a bit of the edited extract up here and getting it done means that I can get Foresters up on the blog this week as another fun read for fans of grim medieval fantasy.

In the mean time, I'll be at my keyboard.
-Tom