Feb 19, 2024
In the shadows of our world, an unseen battle rages.
Night Hunter is a new series where the ordinary meets the extraordinary. Follow Thomas Shaw, agent of Dawnfire, as he delves into the unknown along with his brilliant field techs, Owen and Kimberly.
Together, they stand on the frontline, a barrier against the encroaching darkness. From the bustling streets of London, to the whispering echoes of the Otherhalf, they confront what others dare not even dream. Night Hunter weaves a tale of courage, mystery, and the unbreakable mission to protect at any cost.
Stay tuned. The veil is about to be lifted, revealing a worlds where magic pulses in the heart of the mundane.
Night Hunter, where every shadow tells a story, and every light casts a legend.
Coming Soon.
Feb 16, 2024
At the start of the year, I gave a little tease about the upcoming releases and in the weeks since then I have been thinking and planning and have a better idea of what is coming up over the next few months.
- Night Hunter Books 1-3: I am currently editing this series. It is set in the present day and follows a man called Thomas Shaw, who works for an organization called Dawnfire, which is charged with protecting people from paranormal threats.
- Shadow Walker Books 1-3: A trilogy set in the Victorian era of the same world. It follows detective Graham Kable as he searches for his missing daughter. This was previously published as four books under the name Blood Hound, but it will undergo a massive re-edit to bring it into line with the other books in the series.
- Night Watch Books 1 & 2: A new ongoing series that is set in the Victorian era after the events of Shadow Walker. The first book in the series was already published under the title Terror of the Thames, but will undergo a big re-edit. The second book hasn’t previously been released, but I can tell you it’s about zombies.
- Jessica Books 1-3: A brand new series, set in the modern era of the world. I am about halfway through the first book in the series. I’m really excited about this one.
That is the next eleven books that I will be publishing. Of those, seven have never been released in any form, and three of them are still being written. They are all set in the same world, at different points in time. It’s a world that I have been thinking about and planning for about twenty-years and I’m really looking forward to getting these all finished so people can start reading them.
In addition to those releases, there are also a few short stories that will come out, which are set in the same continuity.
I don’t want to lean too heavily into the Marvel Studio nature of this, although there are lessons to be learned there on how to market these stories. Having said that, this is what I would consider Phase One of the world. I have plans for where it goes next, but at the moment I am focused on making these the best stories that I can.
Jan 22, 2024
One of the advantages of having a lot of books for sale is that it’s possible to try out new things and see what works. Although I have had all my books available wide for a long time now, with the launch of The Long Winter, I have decided to test KDP Select.
I am not sure what I am hoping for from the experiment. The book is a standalone post-apocalyptic thriller and I don’t know how well those sell in the marketplace. It’s worth a try though as for the foreseeable future I am going to be releasing Galdorland books. Ideally I would like those to be wide releases, but if there is a significant boost from Kindle Unlimited, I may be tempted to put them up there for the first 90 days before releasing wide.
The Long Winter is going to be available for pre-order soon with the release of 5th February.
Jan 12, 2024
This week was my first week back at writing after a couple of weeks off for Christmas and the new year and it takes me a week or so to get back up to speed. Rather than do that speeding up on a big project, I decided to write a short story. This morning I finished writing Symphony of Shadows.
The story has to go through editing before I release it, but should end up around 5,000 words long. It’s set in the world of Galdorland and follows an investigative reporter who receives a mysterious package which contains something terrible. It was good fun to write and let me dip my toes back into the world.
I changed some parts of my process with this short story, some of those changes didn’t work out, but I am fairly settled on the following improvements:
- Writing a set word count: in the past I have worked to an amount of time, and that was starting to get tough for me. I always enjoyed the writing, but staring down the barrel of a two hour writing session is kind of intimidating. So for this project I decided to work to a word count each day and it made a massive difference. Even though I probably wrote for the same amount of time, I never once found myself looking at the clock.
- Writing on my iPad: I would love to have a separate space purely for first draft writing, with a separate computer that I only ever used for that. Unfortunately that’s not going to happen anytime soon. So for this project I decided to try writing on my iPad using a Magic Keyboard, which is a setup I don’t use for any other type of work. It went very well and I’m planning to keep that system up as I move into writing the first Jessica book.
It feels pretty good to have a story written so early in the year. I don’t have a gap in my editing schedule to work on it for a while yet, but I’m glad I am off the starting block now.
Jan 9, 2024
In my post yesterday I threw in the term Galdorland and you might be wondering what that’s all about. Simply put, it’s the umbrella term for all the books set in a world I have created. Think of it like Discworld, or the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or Star Wars.
Galdorland is a world that is very similar to our world. So similar, in fact, that the term Galdorland is really only something I will use to refer to the universe. As far as anyone living in that world is concerned, it is still called Earth.
The big difference between our world and the world of Galdorland is that magic and monsters that we think of as myths and legends, are very real there.
I published the first books set in Galdorland about ten years ago. Since then, the possibilities for the universe I created have kept coming back to me and every now and again I sit down and try to write them. Outside of the main books I have published a couple more “side books” and a few short stories.
The trouble with publishing more, was that I was never quite sure how that world worked and it has taken me until now to make firm plans. That means there is going to be a lot of changes.
As you may know if you’ve read some of my other posts, I am currently in the process of going back through old titles and tidying them up. What I am calling “Remasters” for want of a better term. Unfortunately, a fresh round of edits and a new cover isn’t going to be enough to fix the original Galdorland books and bring them into continuity with what I am writing now. Instead, they are going to need a bit more work.
That means I will be removing the original books from sale to do the work. The new editions will be available again in the middle of the year.
I am really excited about this project. These are books and ideas that have been with me since I started writing professionally and it now seems that I am in a position to do them justice.
