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Origins of The Magdon – Vercovicium is the first volume of The Magdon series by Tobey Alexander
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There has always been something living in the shadows, only now it has a name…The Magdon. The first in an exciting series exploring the adventures of Archy as he goes in search of a monster buried in the shadows for centuries. There is another world beneath our own, we just have to remember that it is there. Hadrian’s Wall, Summer 1911 Archy is given the chance to spend his summer at the excavation of a Roman Fort called Vercovicium. One fateful day Archy stumbles across a buried tomb. Braving the dark Archy sets off in exploration and discovers a long forgotten part of history. The events of that summer open a new adventure to Archy that will change him forever.
A Word from the Author
The whole saga of The Magdon started when my youngest son was scared of a noise as we walked home through the woods. Incidentally is just a rather gruff dog barking but the echo in the trees made it sound a little weird. So when I decided to answer I didn’t tell him that, I made up a monster and called it “The Magdon”. Oh this monster was to become something more than a quick white lie. I was constantly asked questions by both my sons by this point, where was it from, how did it get here, what does it look like. Each time I would be forced to grow the lie. Wrap it in more lies until one day I needed to give it justification. So that day their Great Great Grandfather was born (or more indeed a false one sharing their name). Archibald came into existence and I told them I had received his old diary sent to me from a long lost friend and was slowly learning the story about the monster and how Archy had found out about it and all the mystery that surrounds it.
That was just for the family. That is until parents evening when teachers start asking me questions about Magdons, swords, skeletons and treasure hunting in graveyards (I found myself scribbling old looking maps to find hidden swords that have meaning to the history). Seeing how much of an impression the story had made on my boys I was encouraged to write the story down. At first I tried to pitch it as a hard-hitting adventure thriller filled with true monsters but it never felt right. It felt like I was taking the magic of what I had created to make something for adults.
So it remained just our story for a time. That was until I was put in contact with a dyslexic focussed publishing house who said my previous works were too long and asked me to pitch them any ideas that would be suitable. The Magdon! I pitched and they seemed keen on the idea so I set myself a challenge to put together a series of novelette length works between 10,000 and 12,000 words that could be read to children and be accessible on many levels of reading so that I could share the utter madness of one white lie that had become such an entertaining part of our family.
And so Origins Of The Magdon: Vircovicium was born as the first in the series following Archibald’s adventures and discoveries. I have plans to continue the series as for me this presents a formal way of committing the story down so in the future my children can look back and believe even more that it was real!
(Tobey Alexander, June 2016)
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