Archive for October 2010
Encounters With Ice Bears
The Inuit name for the polar bear is Nanuq: the most feared and respected of all Arctic creatures. And no wonder. The polar bear is the largest land predator in the world, and an incredibly skilled hunter, equally at home on ice, mountain, or in the sea. And unlike the grizzly or black bear, which…
Read MoreResearching Outcast
In Outcast, much of the story takes place in or around Lake Axehead, so I needed a large lake. Where better than Sweden, which has about a hundred thousand lakes to choose from? To get ideas for Lake Axehead, I went to Lake Storsjon in northern Sweden, where I got inspiration for the eerie reedbeds…
Read MoreGhost Hunter
Ghost Hunter is the final book in Michelle’s Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series – and the book that won her Britain’s most prestigious children’s writing prize, the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. As winter approaches and Souls’ Night draws near, the Eagle Owl Mage holds the clans in the grip of terror. To fulfil his destiny,…
Read MoreOath Breaker
When he was outcast, Torak was the hunted one. The following spring, he becomes the hunter when he swears to avenge the killing of one of his closest friends. To fulfil his oath he must brave the hidden valleys of the Deep Forest, where the clans have reverted to the savagery of an earlier time. …
Read MoreMore Expeditions
In addition to the trips which I made specifically to research the books, I have over the years made many trips which I have used in writing the books. The Shetland Isles: in 1988 I rented a remote cottage on Unst, the northernmost island in the British Isles. My notes on the seals, seabirds and…
Read MoreResearching Oathbreaker
To research OATH BREAKER, I needed inspiration for the Deep Forest, which had to feel utterly different from the Open Forest where, until now, the story had been set. So I travelled to the last remnant of primeval lowland Forest in Europe: the Bialowieza Forest in Poland. In Bialowieza I saw the zubron (a hybrid…
Read MoreOutcast
The dreadful secret that Torak carries with him at the close of Soul Eater is revealed and he is cast out from the clans. It’s his fourteenth summer. He’s alone, cut off even from Wolf and Renn. Hunted and on the run he takes refuge in unknown territory – the haunted reed beds of Lake…
Read MoreSoul Eater
Torak has survived the summer and his heart-stopping adventure in the Seal Islands. He and Wolf are together again. But their reunion is all too short-lived. As mid-winter approaches Torak learns the worst from the White Fox clan – Wolf has been snatched. In a desperate bid to rescue him, Torak and Renn…
Read MoreCity Research
What sort of research about the world’s wildest places could you possibly do in the middle of the world’s biggest cities? In fact, you can do a lot of research without leaving town… in your library. In addition to location and wolf research, I also did lots of library research. What weapons did Torak’s people…
Read MoreResearching Ghost Hunter
For GHOST HUNTER, I needed inspiration for the Mountain of Ghosts, and to refresh my memory on what the Forest is like in winter. I visited Finnish Lapland in midwinter, where, in the Urkho Kekkonen National Park, I snowshoed for miles through the silent forest, following the tracks of a female elk, and watching reindeer…
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