Rhitta Gawr is out!

Philip and Quin believe climbing Snowdon at night will be a worthy challenge.

If they knew the local legends they wouldn’t go at night, as there’s a reason the Welsh call Snowdon Yr Wyddfa — The Burial Ground — which Philip and Quin are about to find out the hard way…

A couple of years ago, I climbed Snowdon with my family and some friends. We were woefully unprepared as it was sunny and warm down at sea level (also – so, so beautiful in the part of the world) and just set off. The weather changed about halfway up, with fog rolling in and the temperature didn’t so much as drop as plummet. We wrapped up as best we could and soldiered on.

The fog continued all the way to the top, creating a strange landscape of shadows and weird shapes. This was in the middle of the day, so I was already beginning to wonder what it would be like at night. My friends didn’t want to hear my musings on that (‘Keep that horror nonsense to yourself Dave!’) and my wife, Tinu, was busy trying to encourage our youngest to keep going.

We eventually reached the summit and sat in the cafe, where I read about the legend of Rhitta Gawr. If you don’t fancy walking up Wales’ highest mountain, you can read it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giants_(Welsh_folklore)

Unusually for me, the story this inspired was fully formed before we were drinking beer back safe at the bottom. Also unusually, because the story was so clear in my head, I only did a couple of drafts before submitting and was chuffed when it was snapped up by Demain Publishing, run by the seemingly tireless Dean Drinkel.

You can read an interview between Dean and I here: https://demainpublishingblog.weebly.com/home/short-sharp-shocks-73-rhitta-gawr-by-david-watkins-author-interview

Rhitta is #73 in the Short Sharp Shocks series, so if you’ve only come across Demain due to my story, then you have a lot to catch up on. Simply put, I haven’t read a bad one yet.

Rhitta Gawr is released on 2nd July and is available for e-readers via Amazon (sorry Tinu x)

And the first review is in: http://kendallreviews.com/book-review-rhitta-gawr-david-watkins/ (it’s a good one – why would I link to it otherwise? I’m not an idiot!)