Lovely to see these gentle creatures early this morning... a peaceful start to a busy Sunday. Portland Pirates is taking shape. Is there enough swashbuckling... ?

Church Ope Cove

I spent some time at Church Ope today, thinking about pirates! Many of the graves still standing there are worn and difficult to decipher, most of them dating from the early to mid 1700s. I was speculating at the origins of the word Ope with a friend, we believe that it's possibly a Scandinavian word originally, meaning opening or inlet, and there are several 'Ope' places on Portland. Looking across the bay from Church Ope, it's easy to see why the Vikings found this approach attractive when they visited Portland many centuries ago. I remember visiting the so called 'pirate graves' as a teenager and finding the words and images on them far more legible than now. The hourglasses on some of the stones fascinate me; an image that I don't associate with gravestones nowadays, yet clearly significant in the past, showing the inevitable passing of time, perhaps also the finite aspect of life. It's a powerful image and it shows how differently time and death were seen in the past. We also spent quite a while wondering who would have been buried in the raised stone graves marked with skull and crossbones. These stones still stand fast and look well constructed. The image of skull/crossbones that we now associate with piracy was once, like the hourglass, an image for death, so may not in fact show a pirate burial. And would a pirate warrant an expensive, respectable burial in the island graveyard? Perhaps not. These ancient graves are nonetheless intriguing and mysterious...

Launch of Enchantment of the Black Dog, December 2010

Thanks to everyone who came along to the launch, it was great to see so many people and it was good to talk to about Portland history. I met a member of the Durston family, related to the poet/stonemason Skylark, whose story about the black dog inspired and intrigued me.

Rain and Pumpkins

Rain, pumpkins, ghosts, must be Hallowe'en soon...

Cats!

I feel better about the whole cat thing now. I've added a cat rescue sanctuary to Portland Pirates (book 3) so perhaps they will be happy with this! The run up to Halloween is a strange time of year as the dark nights seem to draw in so suddenly. I took this photo of the full moon over Portland a week or two ago.

Strange Days

Enchantment of the Black Dog is in the final production stages. Domini, the artist has completed the map for the book and the cover - it looks amazing. I'm sort of between books now. The third book of the series is starting to take shape but I can see there's a lot of work to do on Portland Pirates. Everything feels a bit in-between at the moment, a strange time. I was woken on Saturday by a cat jumping off the bed. I heard its paws hit the floor, it ran to the bedroom door and miaowed. Of course, I don't have a cat! There was no cat there at all! Later that morning, I saw a huge black cat crossing the road in Radipole, bigger than a fox, with a long curving tail! My daughter, stood next to me, didn't see a thing...

Strange days.

Artwork - Enchantment of the Black Dog

Domini Deane has finished the artwork for the cover of Book 2, very exciting to see the characters come to life. I really like the way Domini has depicted the Giant's head, a real Portland feature from the east coast. Here's a preview from the cover.

Heading into St Augustine's school, Weymouth, this week to talk to some younger children. I'm looking forward to the visit.