art
Illustrations from after the Alpine golden age
Today I’d like to share some beautiful illustrations with you. One of my most prized books is the Badminton Book of Mountaineering, a massive tome of 19th century climbing lore compiled by C.T. Dent and published in 1892. It features contributions from the greatest climbers of the post-golden
The Atholl Expedition – introducing illustrations by Catherine Speakman
I drew my own illustrations for The Only Genuine Jones, but The Atholl Expedition is an entirely different project and I had a very specific look in mind for the artwork. Classic Alpine mountaineering books like Scrambles Amongst the Alps and The Playground of Europe are brought to life by
An interview with Jamie Hageman, mountain and landscape artist
This is part of a series of interviews with authors, photographers, film-makers, and other creative people who all have one thing in common: a connection with mountaineering culture. Today I would like to welcome mountain artist Jamie Hageman to my blog. His extraordinary paintings are regularly exhibited, and thanks to
The writer’s relationship with landscape
A page from my “crag book” Like many writers, my work is inspired by one thing above all else: landscape and its human context. My work is historical fiction first of all, but it’s also adventure writing about mountains and mountaineers. These adventurous activities would not exist without the
A few more illustrations
Today I’ve been busy doing some more original drawings for the paperback edition of The Only Genuine Jones. It’s a time-consuming job but luckily it’s something I love doing. Although my drawing skills can’t match those of Whymper, I have tried to emulate his style. Whymper’
Illustrating the paperback edition
I am currently in the process of converting The Only Genuine Jones into a real paperback book through FeedARead. The company, which is a print-on-demand publisher, allows authors a huge amount of freedom when it comes to designing their books; in fact, you have the option of doing absolutely everything
The writer’s notebook(s)
Notebooks are about feel, mood, and introspection–not utility. Before I begin this post celebrating notebooks, I have a confession to make: I hardly ever use them. I write historical fiction set in the 19th century and love the aesthetics of that era, but am also a self-confessed computer geek.
I have a cover design!
Ta-da! Thanks to the swift and very talented work of John Amy, I have a cover design I’m happy with! Creating a cover for The Only Genuine Jones wasn’t an easy order. The design has to convey genre and tone instantly, even at thumbnail size. It has to
The first step
My mission to publish my novel as an eBook has started with a simple step–read as much as I can on the subject! To that end I have started to read “Let’s Get Digital” by David Gaughran. So far I’m part of the way through the section
Something a little different
Over the years, I have found that my appreciation for mountains is best expressed in three different ways: literature, music, and art. Literature is obvious enough (it’s the reason this blog exists, after all); for music, I find references in dozens of classical symphonies to the wonders of nature,