Highmoor is available in paperback!

Hello readers! My fantasy novel Highmoor is now available in paperback on Amazon, alongside a new Kindle edition. For those of you that were waiting for a physical copy, thank you for your patience. Making a paperback version was trickier than I had anticipated…

It is three years since I released the first edition of Highmoor in Kindle format. Now, in response to reader feedback, I have made a few minor tweaks (mostly correcting grammar mistakes), so the new paperback version, and the newly-updated Kindle version, are what I will call the definitive edition. Eventually, all four books in the series will be available in paperback form – mostly so that I can line them up on my shelf and see them getting progressively chunkier (why does this always happen?).

For the uninitiated…

Highmoor is book one of four in a high-fantasy series that I have been writing for several years. It is set in a pseudo-medieval world infused with magic, inhabited by wizards, witches, dragons and elves. The magic system is intricate, with clear rules, checks and balances, and although the first book, Highmoor, has a self-contained plot in a small corner of the world, there is a much wider system of geopolitics bubbling under the surface, which is explored in subsequent books.

The biggest addition to the new edition is a preface, which provides a broader overview of the world and its history. I might as well share it here, to give you an idea of what to expect…  

It is said that gods once walked this world.

Having shaped its lands and tamed its skies, they lived alongside its people – until one day, their powers waned. The gods faded from existence, and the world entered an age of darkness, bereft of its guiding deities. A tide of foul creatures swept the land, destroying civilisations and leaving chaos in their wake. They had been sent by Eldingar of the underworld – the fallen god, imprisoned for eternity, ever envious of all creatures who lived in the light of the sun.

Of all the cold and twisted creations that Eldingar released into this world, one stood out from the rest. The witches were more effective in their destruction than any of their monstrous brethren, and their arrival changed the world forever. What started as an unnoticeable trickle became a fierce torrent, then an unstoppable tide, rising faster than any nation could handle. Across the northern lands, civilisations fell one after another. Only one country was able to withstand the witches’ assault: the windswept nation of Highmoor. Their weapons were rudimentary, and their armies were small – but within their ranks were seven wizards, able to bend the laws of the gods’ world to their will. The witches had finally met their match.

Centuries later, little evidence remains of the gods. Nations have risen and fallen, languages have fragmented and warped, and histories have been lost or rewritten. The northern lands remain desolate and largely uninhabited, but Highmoor struggles on – still ruled by the descendants of those seven wizards, and still besieged by witches.

The world of the gods is but a distant dream – a faint collective memory – and few believe that they will ever return. It seems that the fate of the world is no longer decided by all-powerful deities, but by the hapless mortals they left behind. And how those mortals respond to their new-found power and responsibility remains to be seen.

So that’s the world, but what about the plot?

The plot follows four protagonists (aged 21-23 in Earth years) who have grown up, isolated, in the dense forest the grows between the northern nations of Highmoor and Nettlewick. These countries have never been on the best of terms, and tensions have reached their peak with the ascension of a new Nettlewick king. When our protagonists are forced to flee the forest, they find themselves caught up in political schemes that are rapidly unravelling towards all-out conflict.

As for the protagonists themselves, we have three brothers: Eddie, a self-taught wizard with a dangerously enquiring mind; Joseph, a sullen swordsman who occasionally hears voices; and Norbert, a placid worrier who can never spot trouble before it arrives. Joining them is Nia, a self-declared girl of the forest, who was raised by an elvish warrior and is all too happy to prove it – usually by winning a fight (that she started).

Final thoughts on the paperback version…

I’m happy with how the paperback turned out, considering that I don’t have any real publishing tools at my disposal. I made a blog post several weeks ago about my battles with Microsoft Word, and I do hope that my efforts have paid off. I personally prefer reading physical copies of books rather than Kindle versions, where possible and affordable – and I tried to keep the cost of the paperback as low as I could.

The state of the Highmoor series

The fourth book is still in progress. I estimate that I have about 70 pages left (A4, size 12, Times New Roman, if you’re interested), which doesn’t sound like a lot. However, things are getting very busy on the real-life-career front, so I can’t make any promises. Hopefully, it will be out some time next year. As for the paperback editions of Sylvre and Synwyr, we’ll have to wait and see. I may work on Sylvre while book four is being digested by the test readers. Stay tuned for updates!

In summary…

Please buy my book! The definitive edition is the best state in which it has ever been, and the cover artwork looks better in print than it does on a Kindle.

As a final note, for anyone wondering what Highmoor looks like (the fantasy country, rather than the book itself), the photo I used at the top of this post is the landscape I always had in mind. These heathery hills are in the Pennines, northern England, near to where I grew up.

Happy reading, and have a lovely week!

Links:

Paperback: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Highmoor-C-W-Clayton/dp/B0G4R1P56J

Kindle edition: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Highmoor-C-W-Clayton-ebook/dp/B0BGCRWBTH

Highmoor series page: https://cwclaytonauthor.co.uk/highmoor/

Highmoor maps: https://cwclaytonauthor.co.uk/highmoor-series-maps/

Highmoor art: https://cwclaytonauthor.co.uk/highmoor-series-art/