Christine Morton-Shaw
I'm a writer of children's picture books and two novels. You can find out more about my first YA novel, THE RIDDLES OF EPSILON at www.riddlesofepsilon.com, while
Other details of my books can be found if you type in my name to google. As for me, I'm generally considered a bit spooky, a bit mad or both. Maybe I am...
My new novel The Hunt for the Seventh comes out of September 30th 2008!
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Christine Morton-Shaw spent much of her childhood wandering through old churches, deserted abbeys, and stately homes in Lancashire, England. When she was six years old, she had a recurring dream that she was meeting a girl from Victorian times. The girl always did the same thing in the dream: She would run to the top of a staircase, see Christine, and say in a wobbly voice: "Mother! That little girl is here again!" Then Christine would wake up. The author has a fascination for any and all clues left by the past. Egyptian hieroglyphics, and her own inventions based on them, kept her occupied during long winters. She considers the scores of published and unpublished diaries that she has read to be one of her greatest influences as a writer. Christine Morton-Shaw lives with her family in Sheffield, England. She is the author of many picture books for children. The Riddles of Epsilon is her first novel.
“There was no answer. I looked up.Epsilon’s light shone out onto a picture on the wall.A round picture in a square frame.The golden symbol of O. The One. The symbol of perfection.The symbol of eternity. The One without beginning or end.The One who is the beginning and the end.The One to whom time is meaningless. The One who could do whatever he wanted with time. What had Mrs. Shiling said, in the kitchen, a year ago?“Time is nothing. Not to him. A moment in time. What is that t him?”Quivering from head to toe, I stared up at that simple O.”
“But … even if I did – which I didn’t – how could I have found them myself, found them old and faded? If I only wrote them down myself – later? How can Sebastian have found them a hundred years ago – if I hadn’t even written them yet? And where did the information come from?”
“What the tide takes away, the tide brings back.”
“The O was not a number – a zero. It was a letter – the first letter of the word One. But it was far more than that. It was a symbol in itself – the symbol of unity. The perfect circle. Of the complete unit. The never ending. The One.And the snake? The snake was not a perfect circle. It could never be unified – not even if it began to eat its own tail. The symbol of one who depends only upon itself for nourishment.”
“Why on earth do adults have to laugh so loudly at everything? Hyena laughs, the women worse than the men—except for the times the men were worse than the women.”
“There are many wonders in this world that will remain quite beyond your reach unless, in fact, you reach for them.”