Clive S. Johnson
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Clive was born in the mid-1950s in Bradford, in what was then the West Riding of the English county of Yorkshire. Mid-way through the 1970s, he found himself lured away by the bright lights of Manchester to attend Salford University.
In addition to getting a degree in electronics, he also had the good fortune of meeting Maureen (Kit) Medley - subsequently his partner and recent Editor. Manchester retained its lure and has thereafter been his hometown. Torn between the arts (a natural and easy artist) and the sciences (struggled with maths), youthful rationality favoured science as a living, leaving art as a pastime pleasure. Consequently, after graduation, twenty years were spent implementing technologies for mainframe computer design and manufacture, and being a Group IT Manager for an international print company. The catalyst of a corporate takeover led to a change of career, and the down-sizing opportunity to return to the arts. The unearthing of a late seventies manuscript - during loft improvements - resurrected an interest in storytelling, and one thing led to another. A naïve and inexpert seed finally received benefit of mature loam, and from it Leiyatel's Embrace eventually blossomed.
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Starmaker Stella
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Stella has grown up harbouring a secret – a view of her world no one else can see.
Being a Starmaker, working alone at the top of the StarTower, seemed like the job for her. Maybe so, but the view constantly reminds her how unique she really is in this realm of Dica. She finally resolves to find out why, and thereby begins another enthralling episode in this much loved created-world’s turbulent history. It’s a tale seen through the eyes of Stella, a fresh, new Dican character, the daughter of Geran and Falmeard – two readers’ favourites from this singular series. Follow Stella as she uncovers the truth not only about herself, but about the true nature of her world, and of all those held captive within it. It’s a path to discovery fraught with dangers only she and some few beloved Dican characters, like Lord Nephril, can overcome. Even Stella’s own life comes under threat when she decides to challenge the realm’s established order, when she becomes one young woman against the might of the certain power of Dica.
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An Artist’s Eye
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On the day Prescinda leaves the fishing village ofGrayden, and her marriage to a man she’s never loved, her return to the old family home of Blisteraising Farm is interrupted. A surprise visit by Nephril brings with it a strange request that he seems reluctant to explain.
“I know thou hath heard talk of a distant city,” was how he broached it, which seemed more benign than his last request that she scare someone almost to death. This time she was asked to help Falmeard spy out a rare sight, but one which could very well foretell the end of the realm of Dica, and thereby of existence itself. There begins a most strange journey that turns into a race to a discovery which should never have been possible. What finally comes to light places Dica and its people in their true perspective, and reveals an enemy within, an enemy they must defeat. But even if Prescinda and her friends succeed, has Dica already been taken too far awry for the damage to be undone? Can they find a way to bring the realm back onto the path to a safe new future, and so keep true to the artist’s eye?
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Leiyatel's Embrace
SF/Fantasy/Mystery
At the end of a long, slow decline, the huge castle realm of Dica seems to be drawing close to its final days, but few of its remaining inhabitants are aware of this. Even when stirred into some ineffectual action by the arrival of an unexpected army - amassed before its gates - the true meaning of what’s really happening only comes slowly, and only to a small group of oddly assorted characters. Follow their journey as they travel the realm’s vast and convoluted ways, as they eventually unearth a complex and strange past, and much about themselves. This is the first book of the Dica Series, a leisurely introduction to much of the weird and wonderful that marks this out as a unique fantasy world, but a fantasy world without swords and sorcery, without magic and elves. This is, though, a world wrought with mystery, a world of the unexpected, a world of vast vistas and intimate observations. It’s also a compelling tale, one that builds to a most unexpected and thought-provoking conclusion. At times lyrical, the rich prose will steadily draw you into a totally fresh yet seemingly familiar place and time, one that will stay with you forever.
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Of Weft and Weave
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SF/Fantasy/Mystery
When the castle realm of Dica again draws close to its final days, the ancient power long placed at its heart appears to be giving way to a new era, as the knowledge of the old founding fathers is methodically unearthed. It brings about a fresh mechanicking world, one seemingly bright with hope. All it lacks, to exploit these riches to the full, is knowledge long ago secreted to a distant colony, a place of safekeeping beyond the Gray Mountains. Travel with an oddly assorted party of both familiar and new wayfarers as they seek out that knowledge, as they strive to return the old power, but in service to a new future. Journey also into mystery and intrigue, as those familiar characters discover much more besides. This is the second book in the Dica Series, a faster paced pursuit of the weird and wonderful fantasy world introduced in Leiyatel’s Embrace. Still a world without swords and sorcery, without magic and elves, it is, though, a world wrought with mystery, a world of the unexpected, a world of vast vistas and intimate observations. It’s also a compelling tale, a journey of individual journeys, all made beyond the vast confines of Dica. At times lyrical, the rich prose will carry you into a totally fresh yet seemingly familiar place and time, one that will stay with you forever.
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Last True World
SF/Fantasy/Mystery
With the ancient castle realm of Dica seemingly set upon a bright path into a brave new mechanicking future, flaws become evident, flaws needing time to put right. The old knowledge cannot be taken up fast enough to offset the loss of the ancient power of Leiyatel, and so plans are set in motion that aren’t to everyone’s liking. Follow both familiar and new characters, all embroiled in their own intrigue and deceit, as they chase often conflicting ends, each convinced they know what’s right for the realm This is the third book in the Dica Series, one that steps out smartly on the road to revelation, uncovering all about the weird and wonderful fantasy world introduced in Leiyatel’s Embrace. Still a world without swords and sorcery, without magic and elves, it is, though, a world whose mystery is finally and startlingly laid bare. Through this a more compelling story develops, one that reaches out far further than even the vast confines of Dica. Still at times lyrical and rich, the prose now promises to carry you beyond the weird and wonderful, beyond the idiosyncratic and idiotic, into an understanding that will truly stay with you for the rest of time.
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Cold Angel Days
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SF/Fantasy/MysteryRomance
The ancient engers knew it as a theoretical entity, one so remotely implausible that the idea only survived in an obscure verse. How could an ages-old poem give rise to the reality of the days of the Cold Angel, days that threaten the realm’s very future? And why does a woman’s determination to do right by her sister put her at the heart of a mystery, one that threatens to destroy the only love that sister has ever known? Someone’s lost memories lead her to a strange meeting with a man in an even stranger tower, one that pricked star holes in the sky until but a few days before. What of it now, though, and its keeper’s determination to put things right at all costs? How is she to deal with the painful dilemma he draws her towards - when she’s asked to weigh the love of her sister against a duty to save the realm?
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