Special Guest Post by Crispina Kemp, Author of Hare and Adder

New from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Hegrissa should have been a granary keeper. She should have been able to find her way back to Lienershi when Kerrid, Head of the Granaries, sent her south to meet with her father. She should have been safe with the copper-smith since smiths are sworn off women. But now seduced, pregnant and with her trade lost, her only hope lies with her native family. Yet rejected there too, she finds acceptance with an eblan, a Speaker for the Dead, who believes her inspired. Can she find a new identity amongst these people, or will she reclaim what should have been hers?

Paperback available from Amazon on 10th June 2023, e-book now available on pre-order

Before I can say about Hare and Adder, first I must say about the Trilogy.

Alsaldic Lands Trilogy

Two thousand years after the events of The Spinner’s Game, Kerrid is the Head of the Kerdolan and granary traders. Though established in this role, there are still Asars who oppose her, led by Urinod who believes the moment of Kerrid’s death will return the Asars to their rightful otherworld realm. Stuck between these are the next generation, 

Brictans born of Asar-human parentage, and those who seek to make a life within the increasingly important Alsaldic Lands. The trilogy maps the development, flowering and collapse of the Alsaldic Empire as it moves from its birth within an early agricultural society, through the copper and bronze-using warrior cults, to topple at the first whisper of iron.

Hare and Adder: Of Granaries, Traders and Circles of Inspiration – A Neolithic Odyssey

Hegrissa should have been a granary keeper. She should have been able to find her way back to Lienershi when Kerrid, Head of the Granaries, sent her south to meet with her father. She should have been safe with the copper-smith since smiths are sworn off women. But now seduced, pregnant and with her trade lost, her only hope lies with her native family. 

Yet rejected there too, she finds acceptance with an eblan, a Speaker for the Dead, who believes her inspired. Can she find a new identity amongst these people, or will she reclaim what should have been hers?

Of Themes – Both Personal and Story

I’m an archaeology geek who has always loved the neolithic. When I was young, little was known about this period of prehistory – which left it wide open for a writer with imagination to fill it with stories. And through my thirties and forties that’s what I did. But I was still learning the craft and I tried every which way to create a satisfactory tale. In 2006, I thought I’d achieved it.

Hare and Adder – version one

I sent the required three chapters and synopsis to an agent. And waited. And waited. Two months later I received a handwritten response. The agent liked it but wanted some changes.

That should have delighted me but, alas, in those two months I had been rushed into hospital with a viral infection of the central nervous system. It had savagely hit my brain’s language centre. I was left with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and transient brain damage. To write just three sentences exhausted me. And I’d lost that nuanced comprehension of words that a writer needs.

Learning to Write. Again

If I was to continue to write, I had to learn the craft all over again. And I did. Six months later I had the early drafts of two fantasy stories – which I later combined with a third to produce Learning To Fly (2021).

But Hare and Adder eluded me. I could not make that neolithic plot work. I set it aside, and turned my attention to what, in my head, was the back story of Hare and Adder: The Spinner’s Game. I published those five books in 2020.

Hare and Adder – version two

After The Spinner’s Game (2020), Learning To Fly (2021), and Roots of Rookeri (2022) I worked on Alsalda Bear, which I had previously blogged as a serial. It was then the answers fell into place. Hare and Adder was to be the prequel to Alsalda. Yay! And if I worked hard on straightening the glitches in The King’s Wife (another blogged story) it would complete the trilogy.

Success Achieved By A Different Route

In Hare and Adder, Hegrissa has all her hard work and her ambitions destroyed through no fault of her own. But she and me, we’re alike. It might take time, but we succeed by taking a different route. I hope my readers find inspiration in that.

A Note about the Neolithic

When I started my nerdy love affair, we had little solid knowledge of the Neolithic. But that’s no longer the case. Yet my stories took form in those earlier days.

Therefore, I have to say these are works of imagination, inspired by mythology, anthropology and archaeology; they do not purport to be accurate or speculative accounts of the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of Western Europe.

Crispina Kemp

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About the Author

Crispina Kemp says, 'Failing to find a place on the space programme – to boldy go – I turned my vision inwards to a study of psychology and exploration of spirituality. This encouraged an outward journey to explore this wonderful world, its peoples, its beliefs, but mostly its pasts. From the exploration I returned with the core of my writing. But, for the more mundane-minded: For a shy child with a speech problem, the written word came as a release, enabling me to express myself without being asked, ‘Eh? What did you say? Say again?’ I wrote my first ‘proper’ story when I was nine. A gothic offering to scare my friends. Since then, there has been scarcely a day when I haven’t been busy writing. Novels. The short story form doesn’t appeal to me, although over recent months I have posted micro-fiction on my blog. In my early teens, I visited Grimes Graves, the Neolithic flint mines in Norfolk. The following summer, I visited Stonehenge in Wiltshire. Thence began a lifelong interest in the archaeology of prehistory. The study of myths and legends seemed a natural progression, and from there to linguistics (despite my inability to pronounce the words). Resident in Norfolk (UK) where my roots dig deep, my regular rambles into the surrounding countryside provide balance to the cerebral… and ample subjects for my camera.' Find out more at Crispina's website https://crispinakemp.com and follow her on Twitter @crispinakemp1 and @ineebrown51