Fernando M. Cimadevila

Biography

Fernando M. Cimadevila is the author of a series of novels dedicated to The Secret World of Basilius Hoffman, in which the explorer of hidden worlds and part-time knight Basilius Hoffman goes off in search of the legendary Cartographer’s Diary in the company of his nephew. Three novels in this series have been published to date: The Dream Snatcher (2011), A Lighthouse in the Dark (2013) and The Battle for Avalon (2015). He has written a series of children’s novels, The Adventures of the Palpator, and a detective novel set in Nepal, Stroking the Sky (2014). Fernando Cimadevila has run his own bookshop, Auryn, dedicated to fantasy literature and now publishes Galician authors of fantasy, horror and science fiction under the imprint Contos Estraños (Strange Stories).

Synopsis

The Secret World of Basilius Hoffman: The Dream Snatcher (352 pages), published in 2011, is the first in an ongoing series of books devoted to the explorer of hidden worlds Basilius Hoffman and his exploits to gain the legendary Cartographer’s Diary in the company of his nephew. Two other volumes have been published: A Lighthouse in the Dark (2013) and The Battle for Avalon (2015). The book is divided into fourteen chapters, each with an illustration by Ivan Valladares at the beginning and end.

Sample

There was only a week to go before the start of the Christmas holidays when Peter found out that his holidays were going to be different this year. His parents had promised to pick him up that evening at six, but, as usual, they didn’t keep their promise. He waited for them at the gates to his boarding school for some time, watching how other boarders left school for the holidays, how the old iron gate closed and how night spread its cloak over the city. It was not one of those pleasant afternoons when you want to go for a walk in the park, but one of those wet and cold afternoons you get in winter when darkness devours the day before its time and the best spot in the whole world is next to the fireplace at home.

Peter sat waiting on a bench for hours and hours with a pile of suitcases next to him, his body shrinking from the cold as he hoped the small drop of rain that had just fallen on his nose was not the beginning of a downpour.