You May Not Have Seen This Interview

If you are one of the many who have only just discovered the Vale of Strange books, you may not have read this interview with their author Grimly Darkwood. Grimly was in conversation with Ian Eagleton who is the developer of the excellent app for iPad ‘The Reading Realm’. This app encourages children to read with games and quizzes. An extract from the first Vale of Strange book, ’The Shop on Peculiar Hill’, is one of the texts which Ian has used in his app.

The conversation took place a few months ago and the interview appeared on The Reading Realm site in November, shortly before the publication of the second Vale of Strange book, ‘Stranger Days on Peculiar Hill’. It’s really worth a read if you haven’t seen it. Here’s a brief extract in which Grimly describes what he hoped to achieve when he started out writing the books:

“In writing The Shop on Peculiar Hill, I wanted to produce a book that was funny as well as scary, mysterious as well as exciting, and fun for adults to read as well as for children. I hope readers will think I’ve succeeded.”

You can read the whole of the interview here.

If you read one of the Vale of Strange books over the Christmas holiday, don’t forget to write and tell us what you think of it or send us your impressions of the Vale, either in print or in pictures. You are also welcome to send in any questions you have about the books. We always love to get feedback from you.

And finally, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all at Grimly HQ!

Oh yes, and don’t forget that hat….

Chat and Spin

Don’t miss me (Grimly) speaking on chatandspinradio.com about ‘The Shop on Peculiar Hill’ this Thursday evening 12 Dec. I will be on at around 8pm UK time. I’m sure you can find the time to tune in. It’s not like there’s anything else much going on that day…

Keeping In Touch

Just to ring the changes a bit as regards pictures here on the blog, many thanks to John Guy Collick, author of the galaxy-spanning Book of the Colossus series, for sharing this photo of his paperback copy of Stranger Days on Peculiar Hill on desk display...

Now that all the Kindles have been sieved and measured as they were downloaded through the great colander in the sky, we are able to report that almost a thousand people (yes, almost a thousand!) took advantage of the splendid offer of a free e-copy of The Shop on Peculiar Hill. This being so, it seems likely that some of them have been smart enough not only to grasp this remarkable opportunity with eager fingers but also to find their way here to the premier source of knowledge of all things Grimly. One of them may even be you, in which case welcome along!

This is indeed the place to come to keep up-to-date with all the latest developments in the world of the Vale of Strange. You may wish to check back here from time to time to make sure you’re not missing anything. Alternatively, if you’re as smart as I think you are, you’ll prefer to automate the process by putting your email address in the little box on the right-hand side of the page, the one labelled ‘Follow Blog by Email’. It will not surprise you to learn that this will sign you up to get email notifications of new posts here on the blog.

But of course, communication is a two-way thing. Extensive scientific experiments have proved that shouting at the top of your voice is a totally useless means of communication if no one is listening. So I wish to assure you that, for our part, we are sitting here with our ears sticking out of our hats (which Aunt Maggie assures me is perfectly safe as long as no bogeys are flying around), ready to capture your faintest whisper and place it on the conveyor belt which carries it up to what passes for a brain here at Grimly Central, where a conglomeration of brain bits (to use the technical terminology) will convert it into the message you wish to transmit.

Or to put it another way, tell us what you think and we’ll be listening.

Have you finished reading that book yet? What do you think of Peculiar Hill and the Vale of Strange? Would you like to live there? Who is your favourite character in the book and why? If you have just read ‘The Shop on Peculiar Hill’, are you keen to read ‘Stranger Days on Peculiar Hill’ next? What do you think is going to happen next? What would you like to happen? What is your favourite monster in the Vale of Strange? Do you think there are some more in there that we haven’t discovered yet?

And if any children – or indeed adults – would like to send us a drawing based on the books, we should be very interested to see it and perhaps share it here on the blog. Our artist, Pete Lyon, has shown us what he thinks the humans and monsters look like. What do you think?

You can contact us via the ‘Contact Grimly’ page, a link to which you will see on the right-hand side of the screen. In the case of any difficulty using the ‘contact Grimly’ form, just use the email address which is given on that page or leave a comment on this post. We’re really hoping to hear from you!

(If you do send us drawings and/or your thoughts about the books – and we very much hope you will – we’ll assume you are happy for them to be published in this blog unless you tell us otherwise.)

Of course, if you haven’t finished the book(s) yet then keep on reading – and keep on wearing that hat!

One last reminder: you can also keep up to date with events in the Vale of Strange by following us on Facebook and/or Twitter – see the links on the right….

Paperback Version of Stranger Days on Peculiar Hill is now Available!

I’m delighted to announce that the paperback version of the new book is now available:

Amazon.com link for paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1946892300

Amazon UK link for paperback: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1946892300

Or if you prefer Kindle,

Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Stranger-Days-Peculiar-Hill-Strange-ebook/dp/B081JSL617

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stranger-Days-Peculiar-Hill-Strange-ebook/dp/B081JSL617

Happy Reading!

Stranger Days – First Review!

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“If you have read ‘The Shop on Peculiar Hill’…. then this will be a real treat… We meet new friends, see familar faces, and above all, dive further into this world where nothing is entirely as it appears. In all honesty, as soon as I’d finished ‘The Shop on Peculiar Hill’, I was desperate to get my hands on ‘Stranger Days’ – this is a world with absolutely no finite end point, and I hope this series just keeps going!”

This is a quote from the very first substantial review of ‘Stranger Days on Peculiar Hill’ by the blogger Radzy (aka Em) who you may remember also reviewed ‘The Shop on Peculiar Hill’. You can read the whole of her new review here – and the rest of this blog post of mine may make more sense if you do that now…

As with her previous review, I find this fascinating. Radzy finds things in my writing that I didn’t know were there! It is encouraging to realise that these stories may work in a way of which I wasn’t consciously aware. I simply describe the children interacting in a way that seems natural – often hearing them whisper the dialogue into my ear in the helpful way they sometimes do – trying to amuse or otherwise entertain in the process. But if this can help readers cope with a similar situation in their own lives, then that is quite a bonus.

It makes me wonder what else may be hiding there in the book that I don’t remember putting there. Perhaps there are new kinds of monsters I don’t remember creating… I’d better go and read it again just in case.

Many thanks to Radzy for the review – and for opening my eyes to my own book!

I’m sorry there’s still no paperback edition by the way. It was supposed to be out yesterday. I’m sure they’re staying up late at Amazon HQ to try to get it fiished. I’ll let you know when I hear.

Stranger Days on Peculiar Hill

‘Stranger Days on Peculiar Hill’, the second book in the Vale of Strange’ series is out today! You can download the Kindle version right now from Amazon. if you pre-ordered, it should have been auto-downloaded to your device. The paperback version isn’t online yet but it is due out today.  I will update this post when it arrives. Hooray!

(Brilliant cover artwork by Pete Lyon.)

This is the link for Amazon UK

This is the link for Amazon.com

Also available at the other eleven Amazon sites worldwide.

Happy reading!