Where did Skorn come from?

Map of Skorn created by Alistair Mcgechie (c)

Skorn popped out of the head of Alistair Mcgechie in a creative writing class in North London the 1980s.

It manifested itself in the form of a short story called ‘The Two Seeds.’ (c) A.G. McGechie

Having a penchant for fairy-tales, I was very taken with this wizardly narrative, and forced Alistair to accept from my hand a sequel about Perian, nephew of the two original heroes, Agravin and Montague.

Somehow the two stories evolved into a world for themselves to be set in and maps occurred; followed by runes, legends, deities and poems.  If I may quote the Master;

It had begun with a leaf caught in the wind, and it became a tree; and the tree grew, sending out innumerable branches, and thrusting out the most fantastic roots. Strange birds came and settled on the twigs and had to be attended to. Then all round the Tree, and behind it, through the gaps in the leaves and boughs, a country began to open out; and there were glimpses of a forest marching over the land, and of mountains tipped with snow. ~ John Ronald Reuel Tolkien Leaf by Niggle
(1964)

It’s still a little unclear to me how we got from the seeds to the planet, but we did.  In 1989 Julia Macrae Books published Perian’s Journey;

with a wonderful cover by Graham Ward (c)

Then in 2014 I formed Eluth Publishing, with the initial objective of bringing out a second edition of Perian, and of publishing other writings we had been developing in the Skorn mythology.  The new Perian was duly published in December of that year.

Alistair’s beautiful world-map, tweaked cunningly by Jan Hawke (Dreamworlds Publishing) made our new cover.

Also published in 2014, by Dreamworlds Publishing, was Dreamless Roads.

This anthology presents a rich mixture of fantasy stories and poems, and includes ‘Legends of Skorn’ by myself and Alistair.  Here you can find the earliest tales of Skorn, from the origins of creation.

2015 saw the publication of Shadows of the Trees.

This tale from the early ages of Skorn pre-dates Perian by millennia and will be followed late in 2016 by a direct sequel, The Dry Well.

We continue to use the world-map, its colours adapted to fit as closely as possible the themes of each book, as our cover image.

Follow the links from this page to find more details of the stories, read reviews, and find out how to purchase copies.