Runemarks by Joanne M. Harris *Blog Tour*

I am so pleased to be hosting Day 3 of the official Joanne M Harris Blog Tour to celebrate the re-issuing in hardback of  Runemarks on 24th November 2016 by Gollancz. Each day on the Blog Tour,  extracts of the book are being released. Here is the third extract which follows If these books could talk

     Now Maddy considered the rust - coloured mark. It looked like a letter or sigil of some kind, and sometimes it shone faintly in the dark, or burned as if something hot had pressed there. It was burning now, she saw. It often did when the Good Folk were near; as if something inside her were restless, and itched to be set free.

    That summer it had itched more often than ever, as the goblins swarmed in unheard -of numbers, and banishing them was one way of putting that itch to rest. Her other skills remained untried and, for the most part, unused; and though sometimes that was hard to bear- like having to pretend you're not hungry when your favourite meal is on the table- Maddy understood why it had to be so.

    Cantrips and runecharms were bad enough. But the glamours, true glamours, were perilous business, and if rumour of these were to reach World's End, where the servants of the Order worked day and night in study of the Word...

    For Maddy's deepest secret - known only to her closest friend, the man folk knew as One-Eye- was that she enjoyed working magic, however shameful that might be. More than that, she thought she might be good at it too, and, like anyone with a talent, longed to make use of it and to show it off to other people. 

    But that was impossible. At best it counted as giving herself airs. 

    And at worst? Folk had been Cleansed for less.

    Maddy turned her attention to the cellar floor, and the wide-mouthed burrow that disfigured it. It was a goblin burrow, all right, bigger and rather messier than a foxhole and still bearing the marks of clawed, thick-soled feet where the spilled earth had been kicked over. Rubble and bricks had been piled in a corner, roughly concealed beneath a stack of empty kegs. Maddy thought, with some amusement, that it must have been a lively -  and somewhat drunken -  party. 

    Filling in the burrow would be easy, she thought. The tricky thing, as always,was to ensure it stayed that way. Yr, the Protector, had been enough to secure the church doors, but goblins had been known to be very persistent where ale was concerned, and she knew that in this case a single charm would not keep them out for long.

    All right then, something more. 

    With a sharp-ended stick she drew two runes on the hardpack floor.

    Naudr, the Binder, might do it, she thought- 

                                                            
                                           


    - and with it  Ur, the Mighty Ox, set at an angle to the mouth of the burrow.

                                         

Now all it needed was a spark.

To read the next extract, follow this link to Day Four of the Blog Tour at fromfirstpagetolast

 Runemarks can be purchased here. 

 My review will follow on December 5th.You can read it here.




Thanks to Ben Willis at Orion Books for a place on the Blog Tour and a copy of the book.