Mel Cormican's Blog

Thank you, if you have downloaded my latest book "A Pedal Pilgrimage in the Nordics", or put it down as a "to read" later, or even offered to write a review when you have finished reading it. I'm really looking forward to hearing what readers think of it. It sets out to be a book with an expansive subject matter. So, thank you again and I hope you appreciate the amount of research that went into it. It is the sort of book I wish I had read years ago that might have made sense of the world about me on many levels, even if it tries to keep focused on just the northern lands of Europe.

I am currently reading Les Miserables and finding it epic in the right sense of the word. Some epic books are just long-winded piffle that bore me the reader and pummel me into submission, but not this one. It is human in scale but epic in its vision; in comparison to War and Peace that tries -and succeeds by and large- to tell a vast and gripping story with a large cast of characters, I like that this focuses on a small number of characters, that are fully fleshed out and believable, even if at times archetypal. I loved the musical and I am glad the original book is equally great.

Big congrats to Clarisa in Germany, who won a signed copy of "A Pedal Pilgrimage in the Nordics" on Friday. That shiny new book is winging its way to her at this very moment!

Please remember to enter the giveaway competition to win a FREE and signed copy of "A Pedal Pilgrimage in the Nordics". It begins March 26!

Good luck!

I have begun research over the past week on a historically set screenplay, a period piece. It is an amazing story. People have responded positively with just the outline, that's how good the underlying story is. I can't reveal who or what it is about at this stage but will do so when it is done and copyrighted.

I am also meeting my mentor about doing draft 2 of screenplay 1. This is based mostly on my first book "To St Petersburg With Love." It is hoped that it will then be ready for selling to a production company. And made into a feature film. That's the hope at least. Again, I can't say any more than that about it at this stage.

Exciting times. Wish me luck. I will need it! :)

If you look at many history books and ask the question what caused the Dark Ages, you get the following reasons typically: the fall of the roman empire, the little ice age, famine, the black plague and the lack of good roads. These are found for example here!

The problem with these supposed "causes" is they are mostly effects, not the underlying causes. They don't explain why Europe's economy went off a cliff edge and didn't recover for a millennium. Nowhere is the war the Byzantines had with the Persians considered as a factor. Nor is the advent of the Islamic empire considered. In my latest book, A Pedal Pilgrimage in the Nordics, I propose another theory, one that is backed with solid evidence. It is quite surprising that historians till of late have not referred to this reason which is very strange indeed. Please feel free to share your thoughts on this question below.

Further to earlier blog posts, I completed a first draft of a screenplay, based on the book "To St Petersburg With Love." After a forthcoming meeting, I will commence the second and hopefully final draft with a view to it being put into production, with a bit of luck.

In my latest book, A Pedal Pilgrimage in the Nordics, I have attempted a number of things in my writing. I have introduced historical flashbacks to add a different angle to the narrative. I envisioned these as dreams between the daylight cycling. When I bicycle tour it is often my night dreams that are as important to the experience as the daytime cycling. My dreams get much more intense and epic when I experience fresh stimuli in new places. I will leave it to the reader to decide if that worked and if they got what I was trying to achieve.

The other thing I was aiming for was a richer, more entailed narrative. I wanted to tell the story through the context of history, geography, science, politics, literature, philosophy, religion, and spirituality. Again, you be the judge if that worked or not; personally, I am satisfied with the results; it more than met my goals.

I also wanted to see how my inner thoughts bounced against the experience of the world around me and with the personal stories of people I met. There were lots of examples of synchronicity, particularly in Helsinki.

This book is not just a travelogue; I didn't want to write another of that genre. I wanted to break the rules of genre and be free in making the book what I wanted it to be. In some respects, the book is a novel in its structure and premise, even though it doesn't purport to be fiction. The only thing fictional was that I needed to change people's names so as to protect their privacy. In any case, what I have written I have written. I won't be offering the book free as I have done before, the sole exception being for those who supported me in in its creation, through their moral support.

The real enjoyment of writing comes in its execution and in its aftermath, ie how readers respond to it. I am looking forward to that aspect now.

I am happy to announce that my second book has just been published and is available on createspace and amazon. It available in kindle and print formats.

A Pedal Pilgrimage in the Nordics

The Enneagram classifies personalities into 9 types. Which of these sounds like you?

1. Perfectionist - you are never quite fully satisfied with a book. You could have written War and Peace better. You rarely if ever give above 4 stars in a review.

2. Helper - you love to share your book choices with others. And if you are a writer, you love that people appreciate you. Fan mail really make your day. Most of all, you love to be supportive of struggling writers.

3. Achiever - there is no point just reading, you have targets to reach. Did you read your weekly goal of books? Yes, of course. You want to be the best reader, the best reviewer. You are an achiever.

4. The Quirky Reader - no one reads the books you read, because you are different and special. You are the great book discoverer and you live for the highs and lows of a great undiscovered work of fiction.

5. The Book master - You are the quintessential book worm. You have read everything and your reviews are learned and profound.

6. The Loyal reader - you stick to the top 10 mainstream writers, because you fear getting into a book that might disappoint. You have your favourite writers and you rarely venture beyond those.

7. The Enthusiast - No one loves a book like you! You laugh out loud literally even in public places. If the author knew how much you enjoy their work it would feel them with deep satisfaction. Reading is fun for you. If you have got your book and your favourite spot out in the garden, you are content.

8. The Controversialist - You can hardly read a newspaper article or a book, without penning a carefully but forcefully worded letter giving the author a piece of your mind. You don't just read, you are a knight that seeks to put the world of writing to rights.

9. The Peacemaker - you see the virtue in all writing. You don't have any strong opinions on what you read, you simply read and enjoy it. Writing reviews is generally not your thing, but if you do it is a brief statement of how you liked it. You almost always give a book five stars.


So, which one are you? Do you see yourself in any of these? Leave comments below.