The Treasure Trove...
Author Paul Jameson

Please welcome author Paul Jameson who wrote 'Nightjar', a unique and masterfully written story combining several genres, including folk horror, suspense, mystery, all taking place in a magical and atmospheric setting. It is one of my favorite books read in 2023.

Nightjar... What is Nightjar?

Paul: That, in itself, is a good question. Nightjar falls across a number of genres (folklore, horror, fantasy, dystopia) and so is considered speculative fiction; though at heart (to me) it’s a folkloric/fantasy tale that explores the cruel lengths a Fae creature might go to for love.

What was your inspiration for the book?

Paul: My inspiration for the book was the landscape and locations around where I live, all of which feature in the telling. This includes ancient woodland, Celtic hill forts, and a Roman Road that links the village of Everton (high up on a glacial escarpment and overlooking what was once a prehistoric sea) and the town of Sandy, an area that was once marshland and floodplain. It was as if the characters, particularly Nightjar – an ancient creature of the trees – grew up out of this landscape that was, is, and in time, will once again become. As an author, I simply followed the tune Nightjar then played.

What was the most challenging aspect of writing your book?

Paul: Dealing with disability. As a person who suffers with invisible disability, I wanted disability to feature prominently as a descriptive characteristic of some characters in a feudal, superstitious society. However, by the end of the tale, I also wanted these disabilities to become inconsequential to the reader’s mind, all but forgotten, and thus, in themselves, not the primary feature of who each character actually is. I can only hope I achieved this.

Question from a Red Dragon Insider Reader:
What is your writing routine like?

Paul: I write daily and have a little shed I go out to with one of our cats (Bilbo Black Cat). I always take a large coffee and cool drink with me – to keep me at the desk – and then write from late afternoon into the night. I’m certainly not an early writer. I tend to listen to the wind or rain as a musical preference, although occasionally put on a classic band – Pink Floyd being a favourite.



I have to write daily though, a practice I got into as an aid to help me improve my health during a serious bout of mental illness. I’m certainly a believer in writing being an art and muscle that benefits from exercise, and that not everything you write needs to be put out there.

Tell us about your next or upcoming book.

Paul: I’m a bit scared of my next piece.

It’s huge.

Epic.

World-building on another scale.

For me at least.

Inspired by traditional folkloric belief, and against a background of courtly intrigue, I want to explore the return of the Fae races to a feudal world that has largely forgotten their existence. To date there are dwarfs, elves, demons, vampyre, orcs and more, in a level of world-building that is far more detailed and in-depth than my usual work. With 100,000 words written, though not all placed, I’m quite early in the telling and can see this piece stretching across numerous books and volumes.

At least it will keep me out of trouble.

About Nightjar

In a feudal future, two boys escape the strict boundaries of a cruel world to embark on an adventure along an old Roman Road. There they meet with Nightjar, a strange being who introduces them to the wonders of Man, Magick, Nature, and the promise of adventure and treasure in the town of Sandye.

Nightjar, though, is not all he seems. Of the trees and driven by a quest for love eternal, he has his own reasons for befriending the boys. As a fractious Search Party of strangely drawn characters hurry to rescue them, the boys are unwittingly drawn in by an ancient danger that is and was and always will be.

The world is older and more dangerous than we think.

Get Nightjar

About Paul Jameson

Paul Jameson is an independent English/Australian author, brought up on the tales of Dahl, Du Maurier, Tolkien and Poe, who writes within the genre of speculative fiction. His work features overtures to nature, folklore, religious belief, insanity, and Fae creatures; in pieces that explore the weakness of man against the liminal edges of the Wilde Wood, or in urban cityscapes where monsters still lurk. Certainly, nothing is ever as it seems.

Paul lives in Sandy, England with his wife, children and a menagerie of pets.
He writes in a shed.

Connect with Paul Jameson

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Keywords:  Authors , Dark Fantasy , Dystopian , Fantasy , Horror , The Treasure Trove