Fell (The Sight 2) (44 page)

Author's Afterword: The Phoenix Tale

Fell is the sequel to my second novel The Sight, which is also available in eBook as a Phoenix Ark title. It also has many adult fans, so it is published by Phoenix not only as a Children’s book, but as a ‘cross-over title’, which Phoenix hope will be enjoyed by all. Children’s’ writing is a great tradition, perhaps the greatest, but the best fantasy books, as well as creating doorways into ‘other’ worlds, are very often an introduction into the entire world of adult literature too.

Many seem to love the beauty in Fell, but one critic called The Sight ‘a heart-breaking work of imaginative vision’. Perhaps the heartbreak is that prevailing question of whether Mankind, with our extraordinary mind and imagination, can ever step beyond the atavistic hates and conflicts that seem to beset us everywhere, and sometimes easy labels like good and evil, that create such opposites.

I woke up too to my own disillusionment out of the story that unfolded at my publisher while I was writing Fell. Hence the birth of Phoenix Ark Press, ‘the Storyteller’s Publisher’, built by writers, for writers and artists. The Phoenix is of course the mythical bird that rises from the ashes, the Ark a protective emblem, both for animals and perhaps animal storytellers too. It is a little cottage industry, but in that we hope to maintain something essential, in this world of frantic branding, and massive bestseller-led competition, a real respect for the writer’s craft, and a deep a love of story. I hope you will join the adventure, and share in some of our creations, but you can find us, now, at
www.phoenixarkpress.com
. There you will also be able to share, free, a serialized story as it’s written -
Dragon in the Post
. It would be wonderful to have you come along. DCD 2011

About the Author

DAVID CLEMENT-DAVIES is the author of such highly regarded novels as
The Sight
,
The Telling Pool
, and
Fire Bringer
, which
Booklist
called “a masterpiece of animal fantasy” in a starred review and which Richard Adams, author of
Watership Down
, hailed as “one of the best anthropomorphic fantasies known to me.” His latest animal epic,
Scream of the White Bears
, is set among the polar bears of the wild north. His books have been named
Booklist
Books of the Year and Book Sense 76 selections. David is also a travel writer, and his wideranging journeys are often inspiration for his vividly set stories. He is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, where he studied English literature and history, and lives in London.

Other Phoenix titles you might like

For Children and Adults

Fire Bringer by David Clement-Davies (eBook edition)

The Sight by David Clement-Davies (eBook edition) – the prequel to Fell

Michelangelo’s Mouse by David Clement-Davies

For Adults

The Blood Garden by David C Davies

While all care has been taken to lay this out correctly, mistakes can only be rectified by notifying us at the blog –
www. phoenixarkpress.com
. For permissions to quotations please see the printed book. In chapter quotes capital letters have been left where the line naturally breaks.

This eBook edition published 2011, with a new afterword, by Phoenix Ark press Limited, 75 Vanbrugh Court, London SE11 4NR,   as an adult title and also under the Wildcall Children's imprint. 
www. phoenixarkpress.com

Amulet Books, New York, is the original publisher of Fell, September 1, 2007, and is in no way connected with or responsible for this digital edition. Phoenix Ark Press is the sole publisher of this digital edition.

Jacket design and art was the work of Chad W. Beckerman

ISBN 978-0-9568249-4-3

Copyright © David Clement-Davies 2007
The right of David Clement-Davies to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988