Under Ordshaw: An Author’s Tale
29 May 2023
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: 5 Year anniversary, Phil Williams, Under Ordshaw
Today I’m really happy to be taking part in an event celebrating the five year anniversary of a book that first came to my attention through SPFBO. I read Under Ordshaw in 2018 and loved it, in fact it was a Semifinalist in the competition. Phil Williams is an author that I have no hesitation in recommending whose body of work goes from strength to strength. Ordshaw is a fantastic creation with infinite possibilities not to mention a labyrinth of underground tunnels and a posse of snarky fae. Anyway, don’t take my word for it – read the books. I’m really pleased to be able to share Phil’s story with you today so take a look at his journey below and click on the link to access a free copy (this is for a limited period only so jump on board quickly).
Celebrating 5 Years of Ordshaw
Five years ago today, Under Ordshaw was released and the world was exposed to a unique British city with the occasional magical/horrific twist. The series has now seen two story arcs completed with The Sunken City Trilogy and The Ikiri Duology; two new arcs started with The City Screams and Dyer Street Punk Witches, and a host of short stories. To celebrate Ordshaw’s anniversary, here’s a trip down memory lane – and as a gift of Under Ordshaw for free for the next few days (29th – 31st), available in all major eBook stores, everywhere.
What is Under Ordshaw?
It all started with poker player Pax Kuranes discovering a secret labyrinth under her otherwise normal (if rough) city. Also, she discovered some very unusual, but mostly horrible, monsters – and a community of rather offensive and violent diminutive fairies. All this in a city otherwise rooted in reality, with distinct, characterful boroughs and a deep, detailed history (inspired variously by some cities I’m most familiar with, such as London, Nottingham, Bristol and Luton (not a city, with spite)). The books mostly explore the seedier, darker side of Ordshaw, involving criminal gangs, shady government organisations and impoverished, rundown neighbourhoods, with some hints at the brighter, cheerier suburbs.
The Journey to the Story
Under Ordshaw was written and released over about 18 months, between 2017 and 2018 (alongside and overlapping my dystopian Estalia books). Blue Angel and The Violent Fae followed in 2019 to complete The Sunken City Trilogy (with The City Screams emerging somewhere in between). My plans for it emerged much earlier, though, while frequently riding the metro working in Prague, 2008 (a job that also inspired parts of Dyer Street Punk Witches).
The bare roots of the story came together in a screenplay around 2008. I spent two or three years revising it, taking it to producers and directors. In its earliest form, it resembled something of the final structure of Under Ordshaw, but followed the Barton family with no Pax in sight. At some point this warped, as screenplays do, into an animation involving talking penguins, and there were rumours at one point of Whoopi Goldberg coming on board. That all petered out, until some years later when I’d got a couple of self-published books under my belt, and had a burning desire to revive and combine a slew of older works.
A Shared Universe
I wrote Under Ordshaw with big plans in mind from the offset. There was to be an opening trilogy, but also a series of independent or loosely connected tales. Blue Angel hints at a character in The City Screams; The City Screams introduces a character from The Ikiri Duology; and Under Ordshaw itself references criminals discussed in Dyer Street Punk Witches.
My goal was to explore different tropes and story arcs framed in one particular Ordshaw lens: grittier action thrillers (in a vein of the emergent cinema of the 90s) with the propensity for wild fantasy twists and turns. There would be a witches saga, a haunted house tale, a Faustian story, secular crime stories and more. Then, there was also the opportunity for absolutely off-the-wall adventures, as Kept From Cages introduced.
Five Years in the Open
For all my lofty goals, Under Ordshaw got off to a fairly inauspicious start, and really owes the spark of life it found to Mark Lawrence’s SPFBO and the many wonderful contacts I’ve made following that. The book was a semi-finalist for Lynn’s Books in 2018 and Lynn kindly put me in touch with other bloggers who helped review and promote the series. It picked up momentum through the attention of a lot of great reviewers, which in turn has always encouraged me to keep hammering at my greater scheme. Never mind that sales have always been an uphill struggle, and Ordshaw doesn’t neatly fit the existing markets – the rewards are there in seeing readers’ responses to the series.
I have slowed down in recent years to split my focus over other projects, but little by little, Ordshaw has spread further into the world. We’re now up to seven novels in the series. Dyer Street has opened up a whole new venture, while Kept From Cages also reached the SPFBO semi-finals and went on to give Mark Lawrence himself a paper cut. And the books themselves are only improving as they go: I’ll forever love Under Ordshaw, but it is a particular starting point, with a certain roughness to it. Each entry that follows aims to expand and improve on that.
The Next Five Years
My plans for the future vary between the simple (add more books to the series) and elaborate (design Ordshaw animations and games; Ordshaw theme park?). What’s on the more immediate horizon are a sequel to The City Screams, with the long-overdue return of Pax and Letty, and the sequel to Dyer Street Punk Witches. There’s also an interactive story I’ve been itching to write forever. Then there will eventually be more from the Cutjaw Kids and Katiya and a couple of other standalone tales, and I’d like to go back to where this started and produce fresh screenplays from the books. Because the world needs more foul-mouthed fairies, criminal jazz musicians, weird monsters and punk witches, in every format.
For now, though, my most heartfelt thanks to everyone who’s come along for the ride, and everyone who’s yet to step into Ordshaw (don’t forget to grab your copy for free while you can!). I couldn’t have got anywhere near as far as I have without the support of a wonderful community of readers and writers, and I look forward to sharing more with you.
***´
Thank you so much to Phil for his contribution today. I think the story of his journey so far makes for fascinating and refreshingly honest reading and I look forward very much to seeing what he comes up with next.
#SPFBO Under Ordshaw by Phil Williams
20 January 2019
Filed under #SPFBO, Book Reviews
Tags: #SPFBO 2018, Phil Williams, Under Ordshaw
Under Ordshaw was one of the nine books that I read completely from the first stage of the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off competition. Urban fantasy is a genre that I really enjoy and this book was no exception. The writing is on point, there’s a city with a labyrinth lying beneath full of monsters lurking in tunnels, an easy to engage with MC, cheeky fae and a secret undercover agency reminiscent of Men in Black. What’s not to like? This is an other book that had me going round in circles when it came to choosing a winner and I have no hesitation in recommending this.
As the story sets out we make the acquaintance of Pax who is brimming over with good humour following a successful card game. She stops by a bar for a couple of celebratory drinks. This win will fund her a stake in a large tournament and all going well help her pay the rent – maybe even win enough to be able to eat! Unfortunately, Pax’s luck is about to run out, her stash is stolen by a young man who appears to have been taken into custody by a secret Government Agency (the MEE). Not content to sit by and brood Pax goes in search of the thief’s lair and in the process becomes embroiled even deeper in the secrets of the City.
In terms of world building. I think, in common with most UF I’ve read, this is minimal. This is a modern world and an easily imagined city. Where the difference comes into play is the labyrinth of tunnels that lies beneath. There’s a whole other world going on here, one that I’m keen to explore further. The tunnels and their inhabitants have a monstrous and unique feel although at the moment I feel like we’ve barely scratched the surface at this point and it feels like there is plenty more to come in future instalments.
I really enjoyed the characters. Pax is very easy to like. She’s resourceful and basically decent. I found myself immediately hooked to the story and I think that’s a testament to her strong and compelling voice. On top of this we also encounter a very cheeky, 3 inch fae character called Letty. Don’t let her short stature kid you – she means business. The other two main characters are Casaria and Barton. Casaria is an MEE agent. He’s an odd character. He doesn’t really follow rules very well and he has a very skewed perception of both himself and Pax – it makes for comic reading sometimes to read his dreamed up scenarios of how things will play out. He comes across as something of a wild card and whilst Pax doesn’t trust him she seems to be able to play him well and keep him just on the right side of going totally AWOL. Barton is a civilian who has been aware of the ‘goings on’ beneath the City for some time. He’s kept his encounters with the tunnels a secret from his wife and daughter in an attempt to keep them safe but his family are about to be thrown into the middle of things with life threatening results.
The writing is sharp, the dialogue flows well and feels natural and the pacing is very good. I didn’t have any lulls that I can recall and I was pretty much hooked to the story from start to finish.
In terms of criticisms. I don’t really have anything – so you may be wondering is this a five star read? I’d say this is four stars and that isn’t because of any issues I had at all with the read but more what I would call a symptom of UF and also a refelection of the future potential. Personally, I feel that the first in any UF is the hook, there will always be areas left unexplored to be revealed in future story lines and in this instant I think the author sets the scene perfectly. He doesn’t overload the story with too much detail or reveal too much at this stage, just enough to secure your interest and whet the appetite for what is to come next. I think it takes restraint and a notion of what you intend in terms of the bigger picture and at the moment I’d say those elements are both clearly present. Of course, this is a double edged sword, holding things in check can leave readers feeling that things haven’t been fully explored but, for me, I think Under Ordshaw succeeds really well as a first in series.
I would rate this as a 4 star read and I look forward to reading the second in series.
#SPFBO 2018 : Guest Post – Phil Williams, Under Ordshaw
18 August 2018
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: #SPFBO 2018, Guest post, Minotaurs, Origins, Phil Williams, Under Ordshaw
As you may be aware I’m taking part, as one of the judges, in the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off, details here. I’ve invited all the authors from my selected books to pay a visit to my blog and today I’m very pleased to welcome Phil Williams, the author of Under Ordshaw. Phil agreed to write a guest post about how the story came about involving a visit to New York, a few jaunts, getting lost, a labyrinthine hostel and possibly discovering a Minotaur under the city – well, just read the piece already.
The Origins of “Under Ordshaw”
Under Ordshaw takes readers to a UK city with more than a few dark secrets. It’s a city that’s at once familiar and unusual, and the core of a series intended to span dozens of books. It’s the result of years spent writing and rewriting interlinked stories, with a great deal of imagining what if…
It’s also the result of my own attempts to explore our world, and quite specifically the time we considered the possibility of a minotaur under New York.
Under Ordshaw has seen four major iterations – once as a novel, twice as a screenplay and finally the version you see today. Originally called Penguins and Seahorses, it had a plot inspired by my reading that penguins and seahorses are rare in nature as the male helps raise their offspring. The latest version has evolved from a simpler concept of an ordinary father facing the unnatural to protect his family, but the collision of ordinary and unnatural remains.
Recognising that collision was where the story really began.
At some point in life, I adopted a hobby of urban exploring. I placed myself in random places within cities and saw where it took me. What better way to come up with random and absurd stories than to visit places you don’t belong? I got a real taste at university, pottering around the graveyards and estates of Nottingham. I’ve fed it in every city I’ve been.
In the spirit of this mindset, in the Summer of 2006, myself, my brother and my closest friend took a holiday to New York City. We planned nothing, assuming that wandering the Five Boroughs with a travel card would take care of itself.
The holiday panned out in untypical ways, with highlights including narrowly avoiding a major crime scene in Queens and getting lost in the middle of Staten Island. As such explorative jaunts into the unknown stirred our collective imaginations, we happened upon the minotaur.
We were staying in a labyrinthine hostel with a kitchen in the basement. Down there, we heard great groans from the mechanics of the buildings. And we asked what if… In particular, what if the next time we heard that noise, someone ran past screaming, “Minotaur!”
In this city that had proved strange and threatening in our ignorance, such a thing seemed possible.
Over the fortnight that we viewed New York through the eyes of outsiders who knew anything was possible, the running joke revealed the minotaur’s lore and the characters that fought or defended it. There was the violent-minded homeless man, perpetually bent on a final showdown with his arch-nemesis: “Rattigan, we finish this now!” (His foe, naturally, the master of the ferocious rodents we’d encountered.) There was the sage Mantis, keeper of secrets. And there was the discovery of scratchitti – urban vandalism, or a way to communicate with the underworld?
This stimulation sowed the seeds that would become Under Ordshaw, after a decade of refining. Similar experiences in different cities added flesh to the tale; the minotaur and the underground fused in my mind, for instance, after watching weary people riding the Prague Metro.
The characters emerged from other moments of inspiration. Darren Barton belongs to the concept of penguins and seahorses; Rufaizu his carefree opposite. Cano Casaria was a necessarily creepy foil in my screenplay Brutal Tower (inspired by research into housing estates, which will live again in Ordshaw Book 5). The criminals of Ordshaw first found life in a school play.
Mid-2016, it clicked in my mind that a shared universe made it possible to connect the many disparate ideas of my contemporary fantasy work that I had never published. Ordshaw was the perfect place to realise it.
When I revisited these stories, and started drawing them together, Pax Kuranes emerged as the character necessary to endure this experience. An outsider to the madness she was about to encounter and, in many ways, an outsider within the city itself. Someone comfortably normal, but drawn to the stranger side of life, open to exploring alleyways at night.
And from this union came Under Ordshaw. A novel that lays the foundations for a lot of work to come, but a story that serves the sentiments of three ill-advised youths who holidayed in New York, intent on seeing it through a different lens.
***
Thank you Phil for writing this fantastic piece, I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I did – apart from the fact that I love discovering the inspiration behind the book – I think what really gave me a smile with this was the ‘what if’ – it’s a favourite phrase of my daughter and I suppose it’s a demonstration of curiosity and imagination at play together.
FYI : Phil can be found at:
www.phil-williams.co.uk Goodreads page
The link for the book is:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07CXYSZVN/
Dyer Street Punk Witches by Phil Williams (Ordshaw #7)
15 September 2022
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Dyer Street Punk Witches, Ordshaw #7, Phil Williams
My Five Word TL:DR Review: My favourite Ordshaw adventure yet
I first encountered the strange city of Ordshaw during a SPFBO challenge a few years ago and I have to say that the author has taken this place and made it into a fascinating place full of magic. His love for Ordshaw and it’s characters shines through in his writing and makes the reading so much more enjoyable as a result. To my shame I haven’t read all the books in the series but this leads me a very good point – which is (and if you’re a reader with a huge TBR – which, you probably are) that you can read many of these as standalones and this is one such example.
Hand on heart, I can genuinely say that this is my favourite of the author’s work so far (which is saying something as I also recently enjoyed Kept from Cages. For me, this story had the perfect mix of elements. Rebellious women turning to witchery, punk-bad-assness, gangs and the criminal underworld, great characters that you can really become attached to and, well, what more do you want – punk witches.
Essentially this is the story of Kit “Fadulous” Hamley, activist editor for the type of publication not afraid to call out those who should be above corruption and helping the downtrodden but who frequently fail to do so. Kit lives in a rather seedy area of Ordshaw where gangs in the past fought for turf. Kit and her two friends became involved in the gang life, much to their later regret, and as they started to discover their own talents for witchcraft became sucked much deeper into the goings on. Things have moved on since then, regrets have been put firmly behind, the girls left their ‘witchery’ dead and buried – until it seems that there’s a new force felt in the area and with that stirring in the darkness the gangs once again become restless.
I won’t say anything further about the plot as you can discover that for yourself and I highly recommend you do so. Instead, I’m going to highlight a few of my feelings.
Well, firstly, I just loved Kit. I mean, everything about her. She doesn’t take any nonsense. She rushes in like a raging maniac with little fear for the consequences. Also, yes, she’s a bit reckless but I also think this boils down to the innate trust she has in those around her to behave in a certain way. She’s a confident woman. she can still touch the darkness but has chosen not to do so understanding that such magic comes with a price that she’s not prepared to pay. And, she’s like this fearsome creature that stalks around growling at people but she’s also something of a great softie. She’s surrounded by other really easy to like characters but I’ll let you discover them for yourself.
Kit and her buddies drifted apart but in their teenage years they were firm friends, dabbling in the unknown with the help of an online grimoire that they found. I loved that there’s a split timeline here. It takes us back to those crazy young years and I really think Williams nailed the whole chaotic, passionate, crazy messed up punk feel and it simply made me smile. We drift back and forth between the now and then slowly discovering what really took place all those years ago with a few twists thrown in for good measure and the pacing of this is, for me, perfect.
What else did I love. Well, I mentioned that the author has a clear love for this strange place and it shines through. This is a place that is easy to visualise, This author knows this place, he’s spent time here and he’s confident when he’s writing about it. In fact that leads me to my next point which is I feel that Williams has really honed his writing. This book is really well executed. There’s a great sense of pace and the balance between slowly revealing things from the past, jumping back to the ‘now’ and keeping the interest jumping whilst really making the reader feel for the characters is just so well done. Seriously, I have to applaud this because I never, not once, had a feeling of regret or impatience when I was jumping between the timelines, I didn’t experience any of those little niggles where you feel like you’re being lead down the garden path, or given information that was unnecessary, it just worked so well for me.
Okay, I also can’t deny that the whole reflection on the punk rock age is something that I loved, and that cover by the way – just saying (gorgeous), but I also think the author played a blinder, he’s mixed up the anarchy and the gangs and the violence and he’s managed to pull into that the exploitation of raw new talent that sometimes took place. And, he shows us the grown up versions of his characters as well as the younger more idealistic versions – and they’re a bit jaded, a bit rough around the edges but they still think they’re all that, tough as nails.
I actually have no criticisms for this book. It worked really well for me and was a pleasure to read.
My thanks to the author for a review copy. The above is my own opinion.
My rating 4.5 of 5 stars
As an extra the Author has come up with some Cards for his key characters and I am so happy to share with you the card for Firline. The only thing I’m going to tell you about this character is she is a downright serious witch with an abundance of power. She’s very important to the story but I’m not going to tell you why – go find out for yourself. Here she is in all her glory:
For more information about the characters and their cards take a look here.
The Ordshaw Vignettes by Phil Williams
22 October 2019
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Blue Angel, Phil Williams, The Ordshaw Vignettes, The Violent Fae, Under Ordshaw
Today I’m so happy to be taking part in a blog tour for the third book in Phil Williams urban fantasy series that got off to a great start with Under Ordshaw. (My review of which can be found here.)
To celebrate the release of The Violent Fae, the closing chapter of the Ordshaw series’ The Sunken City Trilogy, Phil is sharing twelve short stories from the city of Ordshaw. The Ordshaw Vignettes are tiny insights into life in the UK’s worst-behaved city, each presenting a self-contained mystery.
You can read today’s story below. For the full collection, visit the other wonderful blogs taking part in the tour (see the banner above). I’ve provided the details for the other books in the series below plus a link to Phil’s author page but for now let’s get to the fun part – the story:
*
The Banker
Fighting the urge to run the light, Freddie Procter hit the brakes with a curse. West Farling, 2am on a Tuesday, there was no one around. The light had no business changing. And he’d been on the road too long already. He swallowed, reassuring himself it’d been worth it. The Chinese were a cinch for PickLathe Finance. Those rosy-cheeked tykes were drowning in giggles after five pints, delighted by Procter’s ability to hold alcohol, oblivious to the loan terms they’d agreed to.
That, my friends, was how you made millions.
Now if the light would kindly change, he could celebrate with another Macallan back home. But something metal clicked behind his ear. A sound familiar from films: a cocking gun.
“Don’t move,” a voice said. “Not one inch.” Procter flashed a look at the rear-view mirror, and the voice got rougher, “Eyes ahead, prick.”
Procter stuttered, “Look – look here – I don’t – don’t know –”
“Cram it!” the man snarled. “Wanna die here?” There had been nothing in the mirror. And the voice was strangely distant. How could someone possibly be – “I’ll put a hole in your brain, you don’t do exactly as I say.”
This couldn’t be happening. He couldn’t speak, and Procter talked huge deals all day – won over the hardest bastards –
“Phone, wallet, gaudy rings, all on the passenger seat. Longer you take, deeper it’ll hurt.”
His rattled body took over. Nodding as he emptied his pockets, Procter painfully wrenched the rings off.
“Now leave the keys and get the fuck out. Walk away, don’t look back. I see your eyes, there’s a bullet in them. Understand?”
Procter hadn’t stopped nodding. He grappled the door handle and tried to stand, trapped by the belt. With a high-pitched “Ah!”, he clawed at the release and fell onto the road. He skittered up, mouth moving voicelessly, mind raging: he could negotiate, why wasn’t he talking the lunatic down? But he was moving away fast. Half a block away.
The car revved loudly and he turned back.
The shining BMW crossed the intersection with the door still open, yellow interior light floating through the dark. There was no one inside. It jolted out of view, then came a loud bang of impact. Twisting metal screeched short pain as the engine coughed a death stroke.
Procter was running back – thoughts catching up. The idiot had crashed his car – amateur – he was not fleeing. He raced into the crossroad. The car’s bonnet was folded around a bent, sparking lamppost. The lights blinked on and off. It was empty. Thirty grand of machinery destroyed, no one to account for it.
What in hell? There was no one nearby – just the driver’s door open – but he saw on the passenger seat, his things were gone. All that remained was a drunk’s ruined ride and him standing confused. A click in his ear and an angry voice. A gun he never saw. Who would believe it?
To hell with this – Procter turned and ran again. He’d report the car stolen from home – to hell with this, and to hell with the faint peal of laughter somewhere in the sky. Ignore it and go – ignore that flurry of batwings passing a rooftop – he was imagining things, scaring himself, had to get the hell away. He was bloody drunk. Imagining, even that tiny, joking voice up high. “Told you you couldn’t damn drive.”
*
Ahh, don’t you just love the fae – probably not if they stole your valuables and crashed your car I suppose. Although Freddie doesn’t exactly come across in the best light does he?!
I love this story and I think it gives a great feel for the style not to mention it’s a perfect little taste of what you can expect from the series. I can’t wait to read the other stories being shared as part of the tour. The next instalment is ‘The Troubled Child’ – colour me intrigued – and will be shared by Space and Sorcery tomorrow.
And, because I love covers, and because the covers for this series are so good, here is the complete set for you to feast your eyes upon:
Plus a lovely novella to add to the collection:
About Ordshaw and The Violent Fae
The Ordshaw series are urban fantasy thrillers set in a modern UK city with more than a few terrible secrets. The Violent Fae completes a story that began with Under Ordshaw and its sequel Blue Angel – following poker player Pax Kuranes’ journey into the Ordshaw underworld. Over the space of one week, Pax unravels mysteries that warp reality and threaten the entire city.
The Violent Fae will be available from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback from November 5th 2019.
If these vignettes are your first foray in Ordshaw, I’m pleased to share with you that Under Ordshaw is on offer on Kindle in the US and UK between 28th October – 1st November and for ease I’ve listed the links to Goodreads and Amazon below.
Under Ordshaw Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40092074-under-ordshaw
Under Ordshaw UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07CXYSZVN
Under Ordshaw US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CXYSZVN
Blue Angel Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43232280-blue-angel
Blue Angel UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07L33XJZ7
Blue Angel US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07L33XJZ7
The Violent Fae Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48246084-the-violent-fae
The Violent Fae UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07Y7CRV1L
The Violent Fae US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Y7CRV1L/
Finally – more information about the author can be found here.
Happy reading everyone.