Flyntlock Bones: The Eye of Mogdrod Blog Tour!

Welcome to My Shelves Are Full and the first stop on the blog tour for book two in this brilliant series from Derek Keilty, Mark Elvins and Scallywag Press! Read on for more information about this series from author Derek Keilty…

• 

• 

Jumpin’ jellyfish, but I had a crow’s nest full o’ fun writing the second Flyntlock Bones adventure. We’re back aboard the Black Hound with Flynn and the pirate crew but this time we’re down and dirty in the squelchy Boglands in a quest to find chief, Fergus McSwaggers’ stolen golden chalice. We discover in book one that my pirates are a bit different from your normal rum-swilling, treasure-looting, swashbuckling, scourge o’ the seas pirates. They’re ex-pirates turned detectives and now sail the seven seas recovering stolen booty for anyone who’ll hire them.

So how did I come up with the plot ideas for The Eye of Mogdrod? Well, I wanted this case to be the crew’s toughest yet. The Boglands are home to a host of squabbling clans: Bog Barbarians, Marsh Muggers, Swamp Squabblers and Peat Plunderers and their big hairy leaders, which I loosely based on the old warring clans and chieftains of medieval Ireland. These clans were always bickering and falling out which only made them more vulnerable to attack. Then there are raiding Ice Pirates from the north to battle, with their frosty scowls and icicle daggers. The ice pirates are sort of Viking-like, raiding from the frozen north, plundering the coastlines for easy pickings. Add to the mix a fearsome cat-like monster with dagger sharp teeth and you get the idea that things aren’t going to be easy for Flynn and the crew. Long ago, there were very few books, so a lot of storytelling was done orally at feasts and retold time and time again, and with each telling stuff was exaggerated to make the story more exciting, especially the battles or gory bits. I loved this idea and it got me thinking that it would be quite plausible for a small black cat who gave someone a fright one day, with each re-telling of the story, to turn into a fearsome black hairy one-eyed cat-like monster with teeth as sharp as daggers, just like Mogdrod.

I am fortunate that the book is peppered with the most eye-popping illustrations drawn by the pen-shaped wand of wizard illustrator, Mark Elvins. And there are loads of maps which I have always loved, right from when I was a kid, reading the Tolkien books and following the maps as I read. 

I hope you enjoy Flynn’s latest voyage and don’t forget there are more adventures already out there and still to come for young Flynn and the crew of the Black Hound. The first book, Flyntlock Bones: The Sceptre of the Pharaohs was published last year. And the final book Flyntlock Bones: The Ghost of Captain Scarletbeard is out in 2022.

FLYNTLOCK BONES: The Sceptre of the Pharoahs and The Eye of Mogdrod are both available now in paperback (£6.99, Scallywag Press)

Buy the Flyntlock Bones series from Hive here https://www.hive.co.uk/Search/Search?Series=Flyntlock%20Bones

Watch Derek Keilty read chapter one of the first FLYNTLOCK BONES here https://youtu.be/vEX2i2crAfM

Find out more at scallywagpress.com