Chaz Brenchley

Chaz Brenchley has been making a living as a writer since he was eighteen. He is the author of three major fantasy series: The Books of Outremer, based on the world of the Crusades, Selling Water by the River, set in an alternate Ottoman Istanbul and Moshui, the Books of Stone and Water, an epic woven of Chinese myths and legends (published as by Daniel Fox). He has published nine thrillers, including the Ben Macallan stories Dead of Light and Light Errant, for which he won the British Fantasy Award. He has also published three books for children and more than 500 short stories in various genres.

His time as Crimewriter-in-Residence at the St Peter's Riverside Sculpture Project in Sunderland resulted in the collection Blood Waters. He is a prizewinning ex-poet, and has been writer in residence at the University of Northumbria, as well as tutoring their MA in Creative Writing. He was Northern Writer of the Year 2000, and lives in Newcastle upon Tyne with two squabbling cats and a famous teddy bear.

New: Pandæmonium cover preview - and possibly the first public appearance of Ben Macallan. Book Sale! Never to be repeated opportunity! But why? There's a clue on the News & Events page.

Below is a recent extract from Chaz'z blog:

Yesterday's darlings

So towards the end of last year I wrote a story for an antho that hasn't been announced yet, and we've just been doing edits so I had to read it through, and - yeah, talk about a darling d'hier. Every now and then a good editor highlights a line just to note how much they appreciated it; and then I glow all warmly and appreciate it too and perhaps feel a little smug; so I thought I'd share my smuggery. Utterly out of context, but never mind:

Here was the street called Strait, because it was like honesty: narrow and difficult and not for us.

[For those not familiar with the great texts d'antan, "the street called Straight" is a phrase that echoes down the centuries. The street itself is in Damascus; the line is in the Bible (Acts chapter 9, to do with the conversion of Paul: it may be the only street-name given in scripture); it recurs in the opening line of The Gabriel Hounds, "I met him in the street called Straight." Mary Stewart is one of my touchstones, where romantic thrillers are concerned: as witness, I have packed all her titles that I own. I never met her, but I was once in the room when my agent was speaking to her on the phone; does that count?]

Posted on Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:14:53 GMT

To read more, or leave a comment, visit Chaz'z blog at desperance.livejournal.com.

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Last update: 6th February 2012 at 12:31pm.

Chaz Brenchley

Yesterday's darlings

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