About the World

In a world no dissimilar from a 17th century England, the tentatively titled Tales of Lorcastle is set in a world where the beasts of the forest evolved into the forestfolk - a diverse, intelligent, and sentient group of animals that is still working on creating their society.

The story starts from the view of a Alys Scout, a spry, young badger who joined a collection of said forestfolk in tweed coats and tailored pants to watch their mayor, the first of many Winthrop’s, settle the city that came out of a civil war that broke their world in half. The story then continues in three parts and in two parts in two different points of view.

Points of View

I grew up in a church, but unlike most, I was able to eventually experience both sides of that church - that of the parishioners, and that of the people behind the scenes. It is with those alternate points of view that I first approached my novel.

The first story is told in third person of Finley Scout, a tall badger that teaches in the cities first and oldest school and frequencies the towns first and oldest bar. Finley is a teacher appreciated by his community and by his students and has a generally positive relationship with everyone in town. It has been generations since New Lorcastle first became a city and it has expanded exponentially. His side of the story is told years after the two have since made peace and established trade routes, but still live very different lives.

Allard deBurgh was a partner and commandant of Garin Scout; Finley’s grandfather. It is within this bar that, over a couple of months and with the audience of the bar’s lead proprietor (a shrew named Basil) that Allard tells the Tales of Lorcastle, and how it came to be. This side of the story, then, is about how the two sides made peace.

The third part of this story is of the worlds creation and something I am most proud of, and where my interest in the dichotomy of positions is explored. This is where I explore how the world happened, outside of either of the protagonists points of view. Where I explore the history that they are missing, the happenings behind the scene, and an over-arching plot that I hope you will find very interesting, about trees and birds, about language and expiration, and about bitter fathers, and greedy brothers.

About the Author

My name is Andrew Littler and I have been reading genre fiction for most of my life. Since surviving a traumatic accident a decade ago have been working on my recovery through my passion for writing such fiction. I have been working towards a degree in Creative Writing for a few years, and have more than a few short stories to my name as well.

Through the amalgamation of the culture that I grew up in and grew out of, as well as the fantastical world building found in novels such as Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, Redwall and novels by Neil Gaiman. While they are far from the most obscure if all pieces of fiction, they are classics for a reason.

I am in no way targeting this novel manuscript as a mature fantasy, nor am I presupposing some ability to do so on my first attempt at a novel, but I am writing this piece as a somewhat contemporary reply to those old tropes and traditions.

While it is written in the classical, genre-standard of 17th century England, I am hoping to do more than create a world of swords and arrows; of talking animals with opposable thumbs; and a physically impossible common language. While not treated as some form of historical fiction or magic realism, I have done extensive research about the cities of the 17th century; from the size, the populace, the religious practices and technological development, the types of fauna that grew and the kind of jobs available and the forms of irrigation and agricultural techniques.

I am really excited about this project, and I really hope you are interested enough to support it. This will be my first published piece and I hope to use this as leverage to get my smaller pieces some attention as well.