Aneka Jansen 7: Hope (32 page)

Aneka turned, pulling Ella around with her, and then lowered them both down to the rock platform. When they were sitting, Aneka’s thighs around Ella’s hips, Aneka slid her hands over Ella’s bare stomach and whispered, ‘Just sit and watch. Don’t think.’

Ella put her scanner down and looked up at the growing light. ‘I can do that.’

There were particulates in the upper atmosphere. The scanners had noted them in passing as Gwy had flown in, but they cleared lower down and had not been a concern. Now, as the first sharp spark of light flared over the horizon, they turned it into a brilliant red flame. The thick, glossy leaves on the trees went from a deep purple to a redder, fiery colour as though the whole island was alight.

‘Oh…’ Ella breathed. Aneka’s hands slid up under her top and she gasped.

‘Sometimes,’ Aneka said, ‘you have to sit down and just look at what you have around you. Appreciate what’s there without analysing it.’

‘I’m appreciating a lot right now, but if you keep doing that, I’m going to want to do very unprofessional things on an archaeological site.’

Aneka shifted her hands, lifting the T-shirt up and over Ella’s head. The sunlight was warm on her skin and she sighed. ‘Good,’ Aneka said softly.

###

About the Author

I was born in the vicinity of Hadrian's Wall so perhaps a bit of history rubbed off. Ancient history obviously, and border history, right on the edge of the Empire. I always preferred the Dark Ages anyway; there’s so much more room for imagination when people aren’t writing down every last detail. So my idea of a good fantasy novel involved dirt and leather, not shining plate armour and Hollywood-medieval manners. The same applies to my sci-fi, really; I prefer gritty over shiny.

Oddly, then, one of the first fantasy novels I remember reading was The Dark Is Rising, by Susan Cooper (later made into a terrible juvenile movie). These days we would call Cooper’s series Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy and looking back on it, it influenced me a lot. It has that mix of modern day life, hidden history, and magic which failed to hit popular culture until the early days of Buffy and Anne Rice. Of course, Cooper’s characters spend their time around places I could actually visit in Cornwall, and South East England, and mid-Wales. In fact, when I went to university in Aberystwyth, it was partially because some of Cooper’s books were set a few miles to the north around Tywyn.

I got into writing through roleplaying, however, so my early work was related to the kind of roleplaying game I was interested in. I wrote science fiction when I was playing
Traveller.
I wrote “high fantasy” when I was playing
Dungeons & Dragons
. I wrote a lot of superhero fiction when I was playing
City of Heroes
. I still love the idea of a modern world with magic in it and I’ve been trying to write a novel based on this for a long time. As with any form of expression, practice is the key and I can look back on all the aborted attempts at books, and the more successful short stories, as steps along the path to the Thaumatology Series.

Writing, sadly, is not my main source of income. By day, I’m a computer programmer. I work for a telecommunications company in Manchester, England. My favourite authors are Terry Pratchett, Susan Cooper, and (recently) Kim Harrison. Kim’s Hollows books were what finally spurred me to publish something, even if the trail to here came by way of Susan, back in school, several decades ago.

For More Information

The
Thaumatology
Blog:
http://thaumatology.wordpress.com

The
Steel Beneath the Skin
Blog:
http://steelbeneaththeskin.wordpress.com

Other Books by this Author

See
amazon.com/author/niallteasdale
.

The
Thaumatology
Series

Thaumatology 101

Demon’s Moon

Legacy

Dragon’s Blood

Disturbia

Hammer of Witches

Eagle’s Shadow

Ancient

Dragonfall

The Other Side of Hell

For Whom the Wedding Bells Toll

Vengeance

Anthologies in the
Thaumatology
Universe

Tales from High Towers’ Study

Tales from the Dubh Linn

The
Aneka Jansen
Books

Steel Beneath The Skin

The Cold Steel Mind

Steel Heart

The Winter War

The Greatest Heights of Honour

The Lowest Depths of Shame

The
Ultrahuman
Books

Ugly

The
Unobtainium
Books

Kate on a Hot Tin Roof