Calbannin

Welcome!

Calbannin is an imaginary land that formed in my mind many years ago after a college trip to a local art gallery. I saw an installation of a ring of stones suspended above the floor and The Ring of Calbannin was formed.

I went home, wonderfully excited about this new discovery, drew maps, met characters who lived in the lands of Calbannin, and wrote down what they were doing. I discovered at the time that I was doing what Tolkien did: discovering the lands rather than creating them.

Calbannin contains many peoples, including Men, Dwarves, Giants, the feared Ustakhi, dragons and the mythical but recently re-appeared Menelfari. There are shepherds, the Talamhain, who would best be described as the Calbannin equivalent of the SAS, the peaceful and determined librarians of Bennesgarth, the shadowy Segreati, the Tell Geyardon, who remembers everything, and the Rendera, a horsed people who live in the saddle and can ride and fight for days without sleep.

It also has a rich history, languages and belief systems, and as I wrote, I found myself thinking, How did that happen? Where did these peoples come from? It was an exciting journey of discovery, and it was difficult sometimes to tug myself back to the real world of bills, taxes, cars and jobs.

I originally saw The Ring of Calbannin series as a tetralogy, a four book series. As I wrote it, though, and finished the first book Two Stones and started the second The Black Ghosts, I realised it would finish quite neatly in three.

Influences? Surprisingly, Tolkien is not one, although I greatly admire his world-building and subcreation. Instead, The Ring of Calbannin holds elements of Norse mythology, medieval Hungarian stories, Japanese calligraphy, the landscapes and culture of Yorkshire and the Scottish Highlands, ancient Mongolian culture, Old Testament ideas, and even the Predator movies (Yes, you’ll know it when you meet the characters in Two Stones!)

In terms of writing style, Tim Winton has been a tremendous inspiration, and T.H. White, author of the splendid Once and Future King and The Book of Merlyn has also been instrumental in freeing my writing voice and seeing the delight they both take in words.

For music, Russian sacred choral music as well as Georgian polyphony both take me into the quiet place where writing happens. The Gates of Delirium (Yes) and Piano Concerto 1 (Emerson Lake and Palmer) also serve to open the feelings and emotional flavours and tastes of Calbannin in my mind and heart.