A person’s mental make-up constitutes a changing constellation of characteristics. These depict the workings of their mind, their behaviour, their relationship to others and their competences. Certain characteristics are considered superior because they render people better adapted to function in society.… Read more
Three more hardcover versions
Three more of Secret Paths Editions novels are now available in hardcover versions, The Boy & Girl Saga: Boy & Girl (2012), In Search of Lost Girls (2014) and We Girls (2020). Only three more of the published books remain to be made available in hardcover copies, the first three books of The Storyteller’s Quest: The Reaches (2011), The Keeper’s Daughter (2011) and The Starless Square (2016).… Read more
Come into the book
The Boy in a Book, as the name suggests, is a novel about moving in and out of books and all the challenges that involves, not to mention having to handle the dangers that ill-intentioned adults represent. The following short exchange was inspired by the novel but is completely separate from it.… Read more
New hardcover editions
I’m progressively preparing the Secret Paths catalogue so all the books are also available on demand in hardback format. In the photo above, the first five. As I wrote elsewhere, I’m impressed by the texture and feel of the hardcover version.… Read more
Hardcover version of Bursting with Life!
The hardcover version of Bursting with Life! is now available. This is the first time I’ve made a hardcover version of one of my novels and am very pleased with the result. I might well take the time to prepare hardcover versions of the other ten books.… Read more
The joys and tribulations of dissonance
People cling to their point of view, even when it proves inaccurate. It is deeply rooted in their identity. Defending it when challenged is seen as an inalienable right. No holds are barred. Only by stepping outside that world view are other possibilities perceptible.… Read more
Two million words…. leading to a question
I have just completed the draft of Bursting with Life! taking the overall word total of my sixteen written novels (see the complete list) to more than two million. Who would have thought I’d write so much when I began my first novel, The Reaches, fourteen years ago in 2007.… Read more
The Boy in the Book – an interview
Alan McCluskey lives in a quaint Swiss village known for its wine and waterwheels. After making my way up from the lakeside along a winding path by a noisy stream dotted with tiny waterwheels, I met him in what used to be a girls’ finishing school.… Read more
Living untethered from reality
For all it’s painful consequences, Covid 19 has revealed startling things about society. One is our relationship to experts and how their discourse is used in stories people tell. It raises questions about the misuse of opinions given as facts. This untethering from ‘reality’ could have dire consequences.… Read more
Local Voices published
Local Voices, the sequel to Stories People Tell, is now available in print and electronic format. For sample chapters, links to buy a copy and more information about the novel, click here.
I set aside a novel I was writing in April 2018 called People of the Forest and began Local Voices under the provisional title The Sisterhood of Witches.… Read more