How it all began.
The Chronicles of Issraya started life as one book - a story about a young boy, Ben, who fell into the world of a mysterious book and had to find five rings before he could get home.
Over ten years, the story was written and rewritten. The boy became a girl - Tilda - who actually lived in that ‘other’ world. She ended up with not one, but five stories, having an adventure in each of the five regions of her homeland, Issraya.
I had definite ideas about how to make each region different, and drew on all kinds of inspiration to ensure each was unique. I had a lot of fun building the world of Issraya and letting Tilda experience it.
Tilda of Merjan
The Chronicles of Issraya, Book 1
. . . a cloaked and hooded figure . . . its hand stretching towards her, a silviron ring gleaming dully in its palm . . . she reaches for it . . . The hand closes over the ring, flings it away. towards high snowy mountains in the far distance, where it winks out of sight.
Tilda has been angry with the Power and its mages ever since Pa died. Why didn’t the mages use the Power to save him?
Determined to find out, she sails to Ring Isle with her Uncle Vanya, steward to the mage Silviu of Ambak. But finding answers isn’t easy, especially when a rogue mage attempts to steal all the Power of the five rings for himself and leaves the remaining four mages trying to cope with the aftermath of the attack.
When Tilda tries to return a snake torc to Silviu, she is accidentally pulled through a Power-fueled portal and finds herself in Ambak. There, she realizes she’s the only one who can find the hidden ring of Ambak to restore the balance of Power to all the mages. As she tackles this challenging quest, Tilda discovers more about herself than she could ever imagine.
I was a bookworm as a child - still love reading even now I’m older - but I can remember my mum saying to me that one day, I’d get lost in a book.
Tilda does, indeed, get lost in a book in this first adventure story, but that’s only a small part of her overall adventure on Ring Isle and in the region of Ambak.
This is the story where it all begins…
Tilda and the Mines of Pergatt
The Chronicles of Issraya, Book 2
Tilda’s initiation is barely over and she’s already taking her first powermaging lessons and learning the legends of Issraya. She secretly practices making illuminorbs in her room until she drains her energy to a level she knows Silviu will notice. She sneaks to the Ring Room to get a power boost. To her horror, she discovers the silviron in the Ringstone had been tainted in the battle with Luisa and the conduit to the Power is fading. Tilda’s waning Merjanian portion of the Power reveals there’s more silviron in the mines of Pergatt.
Despite Silviu’s orders to remain at Issraya, Tilda travels to Pergatt with Mage Duska in the hope of discovering the precious starmetal. Under the pretense of learning about the history of powermages and their regions, she joins a team of young gem miners in the hope they will lead her to the silviron.
In the mines, she stumbles upon evidence of the cursed stone from the most evil legend in the history of the mages. Now she hopes she has enough knowledge and skill to defeat its dark magic.
I’ve always loved to stand outside jeweller’s windows, gazing at the display. So much sparkle! The fact that Pergatt was a mining area, famous for its forests and jewels, gave me a perfect excuse to include gemstones in this story.
Photo credit: Tom Hetzel
I collect gemstones and pebbles, and have lots of memories from a visit to the Blue John Caverns in Derbyshire on a school trip, where I am convinced I found a lump of quartz with Blue John in it (though the guide said it wasn’t). Different stones are believed to have different qualities, which fascinates me although I’m not sure whether I believe that myself. Strangely, I’ve even dreamed of gemstones - I remember dreaming about a blue stone, called aventurine (I thought). Turned out that adventurine is a real gemstone, although it’s more often green than blue. I had no idea it existed until I looked it up after the dream… It’s said to aid communication, which is probably a Very Good Thing for a writer!
Tilda and the Bones of Kradlock
The Chronicles of Issraya, Book 3
Tilda and the other mages of Ring Isle have a problem that could threaten their very existence. For the first tim ein their history, they have in their possession silviron that’s been tainted with dark power, perilous to keep on Ring Isle or to exist anywhere where someone could find it.
The mages decide to put the tainted silviron in a metal box and drop it into the turbulent waters of the Merjan Straits which lie at the point where the inner and outer seas meet. Tilda is selected to dispose of the box. Since Kamen, the aging Mage of Kradlock, has to cross the straits to return home, Tilda accompanies him to fulfil her task and to help Kamen decide his successor.
Tilda soon discovers there’s more to Kradlock than the famous Hanging Rock, colourful clothing and cliffs full of cavern homes and markets. Kradlock’s greatest pride are the honeycomb of tunnels full of the bones of ancestors, including the mortal remains of Kradlock’s powermages that test her abilities and her right to be called the Mage of Merjan.
There’s a film I remember watching as a child - Jason and the Argonauts, I think - and it had a really scary (for me, then!) scene where animated skeleton soldiers burst out of the ground to fight Jason and his friends. I’ve never forgotten it. Kradlock is the region in Issraya of cliffs and rocks, where the bones of ancestors are kept. What would happen if some of those bones came alive…?
Combined with a visit to the BoneHouse in Hallstadt, Austria, I began to build the rituals behind the storage of bones in the tombs.
The Hanging Rock was inspired by an artist who practices stone-balancing. His sculptures are impossible…but not.
Image : Tom Hetzel
Tilda and the Dragons of Nargan
The Chronicles of Issraya, Book 4
Tilda is exiled to her own region and blocked from using Power as punishment for her bone-shattering actions in Kradlock. While the other Mages deal with unusual crop destruction by the dragons of Nargan, Tilda is escorted by a Mage-appointed steward to various Academies and Guilds to gain a working knowledge of the people of Issraya.
Frustrated by her imposed schedule, Tilda sneaks away from her steward and secretly travels to Nargan to help with the rampaging dragons. But before she reaches her destination she is attacked by one of them instead. Rurik, a local Healer, saves her and tends to her wounds.
While recovering from her injuries, and without the use of Power, Tilda stumbles upon a connection with the dragons and discovers the source responsible for their actions.
Desperate to share this knowledge, Tilda sets off with Rurik, hoping she’s in time to save the dragons.
The dragons in Nargan aren’t the flying sort - they are closer to the Komodo dragon of our world - and they have an important connection to the Power.
This adventure also introduces Rurik Myddelton. ‘Rurik’ means ‘famous power’, and is more commonly used as Roderick or Rory today…but I liked the older version. He’s an important character - not just for this story but for the whole series - because in an earlier incarnation of what became Tilda of Merjan, he was the main character!
The reason I set him aside was because working with Bedazzled Ink showed me how few female main characters there were, and I had rewritten the Chronicles with Tilda to try to address the balance a little. Because of that, my Rurik has been waiting patiently in the wings for many years. This adventure felt like the right time to bring him back into the story.
I hope you enjoy meeting him.
Tilda and the…?
The Chronicles of Issraya, Book 5
This will be Tilda’s final adventure in The Chronicles of Issraya series.
At the moment, I’m busy writing it, so it’ll be a while before you can read it! But the story is coming together and - I hope - will reveal some things about the Power that will really surprise you.
All the action takes place in Tilda’s home region of Merjan, and there will be of course be more new characters to help her, as well as some old favourites.
Photo credit: Tom Hetzel