Elizabeth Hopkinson's Hidden Grove

I have been invited by poet Gwyneth Box to participate in web-linking project, The Next Big Thing, in which writers from different countries and genres answer the same ten questions about a work in progress. Gwyneth's answers are here .  She writes great poetry: I loved her interactive book of haiku and fragments Poems from the Pueblo , and her new collection Around the Corner from Hope Street sounds interesting. Anyway, since I've answered a lot of questions about Silver Hands recently, I thought this would be a great chance to talk about my current novel project Cage of Nightingales .  So here goes: What is the working title of your book? Cage of Nightingales. It will hopefully be the first book in the Angelio Trilogy. Where did the idea come from for the book? Some time ago, I had a dream in the form of an anime, about a flute-playing boy and a girl who was paralysed from the waist downwards. I left the notes in a book, along with the idea of writing an...

A Japanese noble with a generous spirit Born: Edo (?) around the year 1688.  Presently 19 years old and living half the year in his ancestral home of Tokushiro, the other half in Edo. Family: father (the previous Lord Shimatani) is deceased.  Mother and younger sister, O-matsu, are hostages in Edo.  Elder sister is married to another noble.  Also has uncles and several cousins with whom he frequently associates. Occupation: feudal lord. Skills: horsemanship, falconry, swordsmanship, poetry, calligraphy.   Interests: He is a patron of the arts and keeps several artists employed in his home.  Also interested in making his estate more productive.  Enjoys a game of go .  Takes an active interest in the design of his gardens. He can seem distant and formal because of his position, but is in fact a warm and kindhearted person who wants to do the best for all those in his care.  He has natural authority and is fair and competent in running hi...

It's no secret that Carlo, the castrato singing prodigy in my current novel project  Cage of Nightingales , is named after the legendary Carlo Broschi, better known as Farinelli, who was born today in 1705 in Andria, Italy.  Among his many accomplishments, Farinelli spent over 20 years at the court of King Philip V of Spain, having been invited by the Queen, who believed Farinelli's singing could cure her husband's mental illness. From my reading, I understand Farinelli to have been a kind, modest and generous man, who didn't let his international fame as a singer go to his head.  At Philip's court, he spent time every day singing to the king, playing the harpsichord, chatting to the king and praying with him.  Although it never completely cured the king's illness, it offered him a great deal of relief, and the royal family were extremely grateful. One can only contrast this with the treatment forced on George III of Great Britain later in the centu...

For Christmas, my brother gave me a book called The Manly Masquerade: Masculinity, Paternity and Castration in the Italian Renaissance  by Valeria Finucci.  I am probably one of the few people in Britain (or the world) who would be pleased to receive such a book for Christmas - one because my current novel, Cage of   Nightingales , has a castrato as one of its main characters, and two because I find androgyny endlessly fascinating. But the book also turned up some strange beliefs which, as a fantasist, I find just as intriguing.  Or maybe not so strange.  Science is only based on what people can observe.  If food goes off, you come back to find it full of maggots.  Where did the maggots come from?  Without a microscope, it's not unreasonable to conclude - as our Renaissance ancestors did - that some creatures could be born spontaneously of putrefaction. However, the spontaneous birth theories didn't end with maggots.  Here are som...

A mysterious Dutch gentleman Born: Amsterdam, date unknown.  Appears around 25 years of age. Family: father (deceased) a member of the Gentlemen Seventeen (directors of the Dutch East India Company, others unknown. Occupation: gentleman merchant. Skills: manipulating others. Interests: experimentation involving a mysterious lodestone; a growing obsession with Margaret Rosewood. Van Guelder appears courteous and charming - and is extremely handsome - but there is also a hint of coldness about him.  His lack of any bodily scent and seeming ability to be in two places at once suggest that he is not quite what he seems. Silver Hands - coming 26 April 2013 from Top Hat Books

Yesterday, I went to see The Hobbit .  When I got home, I dug out all my old Tolkien fan fictions and re-read them, something I haven't done for years.  In among them was the very first - actually a fan poem - simply entitled Legolas and dated December 2002.  At the time I thought it was the first and last, a one-off expression of my feelings after seeing The Two Towers .  Little did I know then that it was in fact the spark that re-kindled my imaginative gift, and set me on my own "unexpected journey" through fan fiction and short story, to the point I am now, with my first novel Silver Hands  due for release in April 2013.  So it seems only right to print the poem again, ten years on.  Thank you, Legolas.  I still love you. Legolas Under leaf and under tree, Under moon and under star,  Long you walked, before the sea Bore you to the realm afar. Too fair for man, too stern for maid, As all that race whose days are long....

Nothing could have excited my imagination more than the Guardian' s recent reports on the alleged discovery in North Korea of Kiringul (unicorn's lair), associated with ancient king Tongmyong who, according to Korean legend, rode on unicorns. A king rode unicorns in Korean legend?!?  Why did I not know of this before?  I find this especially interesting because in the Korean graphic novel series Bride of the Water God by Mi-Kyung Yun there is a character called Lynn, who appears to be a unicorn.  In fact, he has two forms.  In one, he is a winged unicorn.  (He looks like a horse but with more of a cow's tail).  In his other form, he looks like a human, but with pointed ears and a unicorn-like horn in the middle of his forehead.  He is ridden in his horse form by another character, Huye. According to the Guardian , Korean unicorns are called kirins or qilins.  They are described either as a 4-legged beast with a dragon's head (does...