“It’s been a long time since I rock and rolled”

Or rather, it’s been a long time since I wrote a blog post. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been writing. Oh no. Writing is an itch I have to scratch. I’m always writing. Unfortunately, it’s the publishing side of things I struggle with! And the less said about marketing the better.

For example, since my last post I actually released a novella. Now, you’d think I’d make use of this website in order to advertise such a thing, but I only realised this morning I didn’t even have a post. That has since been fixed up and you can now find Egg right there at the top of the homepage. I’m pretty proud of that silly little story. It’s a bit of a love letter to the Alien franchise, to rock music, and to Yorkshire… three of my favourite things.

Now that’s done, I figured a little update might be in order. A stocktake if you will, to let you know where I am and what I’m working on. Or, more realistically, to keep tabs on myself.

The following is a list of books I’ve written and haven’t found a home for…

Never Have I Ever – a YA/NA urban fantasy about a group of friends meeting in their first year of university… a decade after mysterious dark-robed ‘watchers’ appeared throughout the world.

The Last Witch in Brisbane – an urban fantasy set in Brisbane about a young man who discovers he is a witch descended from a long line of European witches originally sent to Australia in a secret ship that followed behind the first fleet.

The Children of the Ninth – MG/YA about the famed Ninth Roman Legion who disappeared from the records sometime after the turn of the millennium. In this story, all the adults of the legion vanish in the north of Britain, leaving their children behind to fight and survive whatever curse hunts them.

William John Park and the NotHereHere – a MG story about a young boy whose family is cursed by a witch. She steals his father and freezes his mother. William has to venture into the magic and fantastical world of his own overgrown back garden to make everything right.

Cleopatra Elizabeth Jones and the NotHereHere – a sequel to the above. This one follows a book-obsessed young girl in Melbourne whose parents barely even know she exists. Her life takes a turn when a witch moves into the neighbourhood.

The Dragoman – historical fantasy set in Egypt during the 1800s. It follows a young man cursed by the jinn as he enters the employ of upper-class English explorers. Together, they search for treasure in the tombs of the ancients but unlock demons instead. This is based on my own ancestor.

Shadows in the Sand – A unit of the famed LRDG find themselves up against an unnatural enemy in the North African desert during WW2. This one is loosely based on my grandfather’s experiences in the war and is perhaps the most important thing I have written (personally speaking).

I Draw the Line at Vampires – Arthur Crazy #4. This one had a publication deal that fell apart. It is the fourth in the Arthur Crazy series of books and sees Arthur (and Steve) taking a business trip to the famously vampiric Whitby. Unlike the other Arthur books, this one is written in the first person (from Arthur’s point of view) as an homage to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It is by far the longest in the Arthur Crazy series and actually ties the Arthur story into The Dragoman and Shadows in the Sand.

Katheryn Howard: The Motorbike Riding Ghost Queen of Yorkshire – a graphic novel script for the story of the ghost of Katheryn Howard. This ties her appearances in the Arthur Crazy series together and explains how she went from a ghost trapped in King’s Manor in York to a motorbike riding badass patrolling the North Yorkshire Moors.

Girt By Sea and a Zombie-Proof Fence – comedy horror. The whole world has been overrun by a zombie apocalypse… except for Australia. It follows a school teacher who is bitten by a priest and quarantined on Christmas Island. There, they learn the virus has mutated into animals and they must make their way back to the mainland in order to help prevent an outbreak.

and finally…

Won’t Somebody Please Think of the Orcs! – a satirical fantasy following the adventures of two orc friends as the world around them descends into chaos following the defeat of the latest Dark Lord.

But I won’t say too much about this one… because I am going to publish it myself later this year. Watch this space!

That’s a lot, isn’t it! I mean, that’s really a lot of books. I just did some quick calculations – that’s nearly 800,000 words! And it doesn’t even include all the stories I started and didn’t finish. These are all complete novels. I reckon if you add the drafts, and the ideas, and the scrapped beginnings, you’re looking at well over a million unread words.

I don’t know whether I’m proud, mortified, or just plain exhausted!

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men

Gang aft agley,

An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,

For promis’d joy!
To a Mouse by Robert Burns

Or, for those who don’t speak “Burns” – sometimes good plans go tits up.

And so it is with my debut book series.

A few days ago, I posted on social media that the 4th Arthur Crazy book has been cancelled and I jokingly blamed Trump. The truth is that’s not entirely a lie, so I figured I’d take some time to explain.

In July 2020, I signed a deal with Parliament House Press for the Arthur Crazy series. The Book and the Blade was the debut, picked up by the wonderful Mike Feeney and it all sort of went from there. Before I knew it, I had a trilogy, and then a fourth, and the deal was for all of them. I was working with wonderful people, living the dream, and all was right with the world. The best laid schemes and all that…

About a week ago, I sent an email to the publisher asking for details about the upcoming fourth book… and was told there would not be an upcoming fourth book.

Gutted.

Now, to be clear, the email was lovely and polite and very honest… essentially, there are simply not enough resources to be putting out another book. It’s a general ‘state of the world’ scenario for a small, independent press based in the USA. So, I blame Trump, because he’s a dick.

Fun fact though, I went looking for the Publishers Marketplace statement for when the deal was struck and found that it only listed a three-book deal. I’d entirely forgotten about that mistake. The image below was sent to me years ago by the publisher with an explanation that it would be fixed up (because I did indeed sign a four-book deal) but I guess maybe it was written in the stars from the start?

So, what happens next?

The truth is, I have no idea. I am genuinely gutted and honestly struggling to find the motivation. The fourth Arthur book is ready – it has been for some time – and is very different from the first three in that it is written from Arthur’s point of view. I think it’s the best one yet (I would, though, wouldn’t I) Hell, it’s even got a little bit of nookie! But I just don’t know what to do with it. I could try and see if another publisher would be interested but that would cause all sorts of problems with the rights – because PHP have already published the others. I could have the rights of those three reverted back to me, but then I would have to republish them independently. Or I could self-publish the fourth, which I’ve done before, but it’s a shit-ton of work, and I’m bound to balls it up. Plus, I’m already working on something big (and orc-like) for later in the year. Oh, and I’m also supposed to be releasing my novella Egg in a few weeks, but I’ve hit a wall. Hell, even this website is due for renewal.

As you may have guessed, I’ve spiralled into a little bit of ‘doing sod-all’ self-pity.

So, as I often do when I find myself floundering like this – after drinking way too much and generally being a big old cranky-pants – I turn to Sir Terry Pratchett for inspiration.

“If you trust in yourself. . . and believe in your dreams. . . and follow your star. . . you’ll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren’t so lazy.”
The Wee Free Men – Terry Pratchett

Sigh. He’s always right, isn’t he. Always. The git.

I guess I’ve got some work to do (although I still don’t know what).

Rock Zombie is published!

Finally, after months of me annoying people with semi-cryptic posts, snippets of random nonsense, and bizarre TikTok videos, my silly, gross, over-the-top, comedy horror – Rock Zombie – has shuffled off the mortal coil and invaded your shelves/Kindles.

But as with all things Finlayson, it hasn’t been a smooth journey. You may notice – to start with – that it is not yet Halloween. In fact, we are still a few days out from the publication date. The reason for this is a combination of impostor syndrome and impatience (and an idea from Dan). I got worried that if I published a horror novel ON Halloween it would be too late for anyone to give a stuff about. Silly, I know, but I likened it to releasing a Christmas novel on Christmas Day… who is going to read it?!

So, I brought the release date forward and instantly made a mess of things… the book vanished from all servers for a few days and I had a mini melt-down thinking I’d lost everything. But it really just boiled down to me being an idiot.

And then it was here!

Sort of!

For some reason known only to the Amazon overlords, my silly little, supposed-to-be-cheap, stuff-it-in-your-back-pocket-and-dog-ear-it, pulp-fiction of a novel was listed for $42 here in Australia! That’s insane! I set the price at $18.99! I wanted it to be less than $20 and Amazon bloody doubled it! I have reached out, I have tried to change it, but there is nothing I can do. From what I can gather from other frustrated indie authors on social media, it boils down to Amazon just not playing nice with other people. Simply put, they do it because they can.

The listing is fine in other countries and territories, but here in Australia, where I live and am likely to sell most books, it costs a fortune!

I’m gutted.

I have reached out to book shops – particularly Books@Stones in Brisbane – and hope they will stock it.

In the process of writing this I have just seen that The Nile have it on for the expected price! Happy days!

Update: For some reason, I cannot add The Nile link to my Books2Read profile. Ah, well. It’s never simple is it.

So, it’s out there. My silly little book that I’m super proud of… and I’m having a book launch on Saturday 9th November at the very cool Nosferatu Distillery, Bar and Cafe in Bowen Hills, Brisbane (and I won’t chicken out of this one).

I really hope you enjoy Rock Zombie for what it is… a silly, fun, gory little romp through ’90s nostalgia. If you do, please consider leaving a review on Goodreads or (shudder) Amazon. It really does make a difference to little plebs like me.

I am beyond grateful to everyone who reads my books. I love ya!

Cheers,

Why I chose to self-publish Rock Zombie

TLDR; no-one else would, so I did it myself.

TLDR2.0; my wife told me to.

Rock Zombie has quite an interesting past. Once upon a time, it was scheduled to be published before The Book and the Blade (my debut), but due to a variety of reasons, it never quite worked out.

In preparing for this blog post, I checked my trusty spreadsheet, which is my equivalent of Stephen King’s ‘nail on the wall’, but instead of spiking publisher rejections on a nail, I organise them in a table and highlight in red when a story gets the brush off.

Like Rock Zombie, there is a lot of red.

So, let’s see. Rock Zombie has been submitted to:

23 publishers
- 8 said no
- 10 didn’t respond
- 3 said yes

Of those 3; 1 turned out to be a vanity press and wanted an author contribution of $4500 (now there’s some small print!), 1 pulled the plug during a run of edits because they didn’t want to risk the song lyrics (since removed), and 1… well, it just didn’t work out. I was gutted about the last one… to the point where I wanted to give up completely, but my wife told me to suck it up and self-publish. I dwelled on it for a long time, submitted to a few more places, tweaked the word count to try and force it through the door of others, and eventually came to the unerring (and some would say, obvious) conclusion that my wife was right.

There are other reasons to self-publish – not just matrimonial harmony – chief among them is complete creative control. I had a LOT of fun writing Rock Zombie and I wanted it to be a certain way. Various back-and-forths with publishers showed me that might be a little tricky. Everyone had a different idea of what this story was.

At it’s core, Rock Zombie is a shlock horror. Cheap thrills, big scares, gross humour, and a little heart. I’m aiming for an ’80s high-concept film style – terrorists seize tower, soldiers attacked by alien, three men take care of a baby – in this case, a ghost and a zombie come from the same body.

Rock Zombie should be a quick, entertaining read… a knackered and worn paperback stuffed in a back pocket and pulled out on a train… or abandoned in a pub after a quiet night suddenly gets out of hand. I want the cover to be ringed with beer stains and the pages to be turned down from over use. An easy, quick distraction in a world of bollocks.

Don’t get me wrong, I might not have accomplished that, and it certainly won’t please everyone, but this version of Rock Zombie (the one releasing on Halloween) is the story I wanted to tell all along. It’s a love-letter to the ’90s, to my childhood in the north east, to high concept films, grunge, and reading Stephen King when you’re far too young!

I hope you enjoy it. If you do, please let me know.

Cheers,

Pre-orders available now

ARC Reader Requests are Closed! Thank you!

A huge zombie pat and ghostly hug to everyone who reached out about being an ARC Reader… that didn’t make my guts do acrobatics at all! 😀 You’re all legends, and I love you! Cheers!

Please check your emails today for the epub ARC of Rock Zombie!

If there are any problems, please reach out,

Cheers! And happy reading!

(also, it’s my Mam’s birthday today and I know she’ll read this… happy birthday Mam! Love you!)

Rock Zombie – COVER REVEAL!

“Tonight, Matthew, I’m going to be… Kurt Cobain!”

Robbie Neville’s big break on Stars in Their Eyes was supposed to launch him into rock stardom.

Instead, it launched him into the afterlife.

Rob is dead. But his body didn’t get the memo.

Now he’s spending Saturday night trying to stop his reanimated corpse from kickstarting a zombie apocalypse… which is really hard to do when you’re a ghost.

With enough ’90s nostalgia to make you dig out your old mixtapes, follow Rob (both of them) as he faces down hungry zombies, scared scallies, horny barmaids, and the ultimate question:

Can you still become a rock star when you’re dead?

I’ve had this cover art for over two years. It was created by the exceptional Laura of @Hello_Moon_Creative, a tattoo artist based in Redcar. The idea of keeping this story as ‘local’ as possible really resonated with me, and so I didn’t hesitate to reach out to Laura for a commission. I think you’ll agree, she did an exceptional job. It is well worth checking out her Instagram for more of her work, but be warned, she loves a bit a spice in her art (oh, and an obsession with Lord of the Rings that might even rival my own!)

In one of my very first emails with Laura, I wrote something that was true then and remains true today… it is a dream come true for someone to create art based on something I wrote. I gave Laura a very brief overview of the story and… that was it… the rest was her.

The typesetting, font design, and slightly hidden silhouette of a rock star (in Rob’s hair on the right hand side) was me and my dodgy Photoshop ‘skills’.

Pre-orders are available now…

https://books2read.com/Rockzombie

However, Amazon is doing it’s usual thing here in Australia and jacking up the price. It should be fine everywhere else and I’m looking into alternatives. But for now, the ebook is definitely reasonably priced and your friendly neighbourhood bookshop should be able to order in the paperback… or the library.

Cheers folks!

So, what’s happening?

I’m self-publishing my ’90s comedy/horror novel… Rock Zombie!

Over the last week, I have posted a number of different bits and bobs over social media… a few songs on TikTok, Reels, and Instagram/Facebook stories, plus some seemingly random posts about characters, and a couple of quotes… and then this… a 90s-themed MySpace page, which I have to say, I’m particularly proud of. Man, the internet was awesome back then!

Rock Zombie has had quite the history. I created the very first file for it on September 1st, 2021, and I have absolutely no idea when I finished writing, but it was signed by a publisher not long after The Book and the Blade was signed by Parliament House Press (I was buzzing! And you better believe I was waiting for the ‘third bus’ to come along as well!) But things don’t always go according to plan in the publishing world. The first publisher that signed Rock Zombie went bust, as did the second, but then another came along a few days later and I thought that’s it, that’s my third bus! Sadly, after nearly two years of development, that didn’t work out either.

Then came a strange period where I hunted publishers who might be interested but they had really specific word counts… the original Rock Zombie was 70k words… but there are also 60k, 50k, and 40k word versions because I did whatever I could to try and make it work. Again, it wasn’t to be. It got attention, and it got good feedback, but no-one was willing to take the plunge…

So, I am.

I’ve spent the better part of this year putting all the little bits and pieces of my zombie back together… and now I’m ready to unleash him on the world.

Over the course of the coming weeks, there will be plenty more ads, snippets, teasers, and call-outs for cover reveals, ARC readers, release day fun, and launch party shenanigans. I’m going all out with this one (I even have a spreadsheet! Laa-dee-daa!)

Watch this space, folks! There’ll soon be zombies and ghosts in it!

Amanda Palmer and the Art of Asking

I really like Amanda Palmer. She appears both genuine and nuts in equal measure, which is a superb combination. I first came across her on Twitter (before it became a cesspit of hate and ignorance) and I was really drawn by her TED Talk called ‘The Art of Asking’. Being British, I’m not exactly tip-top at asking for help, and there’s a point in the video where she mentioned a member of a support band feeling uncomfortable because it ‘feels like begging.’ I get that. That resonated with me.

But then I’m also reminded of my mate Grant who talks about the community of writers, and artists, and creatives. Grant kick-started the Brisbane Writers Crew meetings a few years ago and a group of us catch up every month to drink coffee/beer and talk all things creative. I’m still very much a newbie because my attendance it pretty piss poor but It’s amazing. I’ve met some lovely people there and many rocked up to my debut book launch (which also happened to be my 40th birthday!) and it was a great time.

Things like that wouldn’t happen without other people.

And I think that’s the point of Amanda Palmer’s video/philosophy (to my shame, I am yet to read the book – The Art of Asking – though it is sitting on my shelf). Isaac Newton said he saw so far by ‘standing on the shoulders of giants‘ and Tom Hanks attributed all his success to ‘his wife, family, friends, and colleagues.‘ All of my books are dedicated to people who have helped me, and my wife, Kel, is at the absolute epicentre of all of this. None of it would have happened without her. Stephen King wrote, ‘whenever I see a first novel dedicated to a wife (or a husband), I smile and think, There’s someone who knows. Writing is a lonely job. Having someone who believes in you makes a lot of difference,‘ and I am beyond lucky (and grateful) to have people who support and believe in me.

So, I’m about to do something that really puts me a little out of my comfort zone. I’m going to ask for help.

On the 31st of October this year (yep, Halloween!) I am going to self-publish one of my novels. This one is ridiculous, and silly, and gross, and perhaps bad-taste, and probably a little funny, and maybe even with a smidge of heart in certain places, and I can’t wait for people to read it. I’m not doing crowdfunding or anything like that (I’m still steeped in Britishness when it comes to that sort of thing), but I am going to ask people if they would kindly share things…

Starting in September, there will be book announcements, cover reveals, blurb reveals, calls for ARC readers and reviews, and a few other bits n bobs that I’m playing close to the chest for now… but I’m hoping the next two months will be really fun, and that you might come along for the ride.

The book in question has had an interesting history… it has been signed by two publishers in the past but never quite made it over the finish line (one went bust and one wanted me to take out all the swearing) so I’ve decided to roll the dice and give it my best shot.

So, I guess ‘ask #1’ is – ‘do you have any advice?’ 😀

Thanks for reading, watch this space!

(As I sat here and wrote this, my lovely wife is on the seat opposite me reading through the final edition of the book. She’s amazing!)

Cheers!

The Sword and the Hounds – the who, what, when, where and why?

Tomorrow is the 23rd of July 2024 and the day my second novel will be released into the wild. To say I’m a little nervous would be an understatement, but I am also very excited. Quite a few people read The Book and the Blade (the first in the Arthur Crazy series) and the reviews are (mostly) positive… except for one bloke who took exception to the fact the main character smokes too much and drinks too much. I mean, that’s kind of the point, but reader spaces are for readers, not for writers. He is absolutely entitled to his opinion. But I digress. I wonder if he’ll read what happens next? Probably not.

The Sword and the Hounds follows directly on from the events of The Book and the Blade and tells the story after the story, so to speak. If The Book and the Blade was about Arthur getting to grips with an ability to communicate with the deceased, The Sword and the Hounds is about him coming to terms with the wider implications that the dead (and assorted bit n bobs n beasts) exist in the first place. It is the hangover after the big night out. There are… injuries. There are… gaps.

I wrote The Sword and the Hounds when we lived in York in 2019… just before COVID hit. If nothing else, it is a love-letter to the town of Richmond and the folklore of Yorkshire. As one of the characters expresses…

It’s Yorkshire. We’re all a little pagan around here.

But really it exists because I fell in love with Arthur and I fell in love with writing. Something clicked in me when I wrote The Book and the Blade and I knew I’d never look back. Even if they never see the light of day and no one reads them, I’ll never stop writing these stories. I’m not sure I can. Full disclosure… there are four complete Arthur novels, two complete tie-in novels, one obscure novel ‘set in the same world’, a script for a graphic novel, a half-written plan for the fifth, and a series of random notes for the sixth and seventh. If you’re along for the ride… it’s a long one… and it’s going to get bumpy! I hope you enjoy it!

But therein lies the rub… Amazon are not making it easy for people (mainly in Australia) to access my books. The price is astronomical and there is nothing my publisher and I can do about it… other than direct you elsewhere.

That’s the who (me), the what (The Sword and the Hounds), and the when (tomorrow) taken care of so now for the ‘where‘.

In a perfect world… your local independent bookshop. The more mysterious and confusing (and possibly a little creepy) the better. One of those old type of bookshops that vanishes like the emporium in the movie, Gremlins. You know what I mean… with corridors and stairs and hidden rooms that will eat you given half a chance. You go in aged 21 and come out with white hair and a sack full of books. Perfect. But if you don’t have one of them… please try my publisher… Parliament House Press. They distribute worldwide.

If you’re in Brisbane, I know Books@Stones have copies of The Book and the Blade in stock… and if they’re still there this time next week they’ll be signed (if they let me scribble in them) and they also have an online listing for The Sword and the Hounds. You’ll be able to order it in and support a local business at the same time. And THAT is the why! Galactic Overlord Bezos can’t have everything, surely!

Any local bookshop should be able to order The Sword and the Hounds… and in a perfect world, if enough people do, they might consider a permanent stock.

One last note for those in the U.K. – – – and this made me do a little happy dance. W.H. Smiths have an online listing for The Sword and the Hounds! That is an absolute dream come true for me! I loved shopping in Smiths when I was a kid (and an adult!) and the thought that you can order my book and pop in to pick it up is the stuff of “pinch-me-I’m-dreaming” fantasy. And I think it all has to do with one dude… the manager of Smiths in Richmond. He was really keen to get the book on the shelf and so we chatted a bit and he took my details. I called him yesterday to say thanks when I noticed the online listing (horrifyingly getting his surname wrong because I’m a forgetful nobhead) and, bizarrely, he said he wasn’t sure it was him. He has begun discussion with head office but couldn’t remember if he’d passed on my name or the name of the book. So… I reckon it is him… it must be… but if it isn’t, that means my little book got on the list at Smith organically. Which is also exceptionally cool. But I include this little anecdote because it illustrates something really important that hits every part of who, what, when, where, and why… every aspect of what I might call success has been achieved thanks to other people. People who read, who support, who encourage, who advise, who critique, and even people who tell me my characters smoke too much.

So, I’ll end this by saying a very heartfelt thank you to you all. If you’re reading this, I have no doubt that I owe you a debt of gratitude. Thank you!

Here’s looking forward to tomorrow and all the days after!

Cheers!

(I promise not to be too needy and metaphorically read over your shoulder over the coming weeks. Well, I’ll try really hard!)

The First One of 2024

Good morning lovely people, and welcome to a random and unexpected blog post… my first of 2024, and let’s be honest, my first in a long time. This poor neglected little website does not get a whole lot of attention and I really ought to remedy that.

So, let’s recap 2023:

Reindeer Games did quite well in the Christmas of 2022 and so the start of 2023 saw a number of lovely reviews finding their way onto Amazon and Goodreads. That was awesome, and I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who read and supported my silly little Reindeer murdery self-published novella.
The Book and the Blade was released by Parliament House Press! My debut novel! A dream come true.
The book launch took place at Netherworld in Brisbane on my 41st birthday and we had an absolute ball! I met some amazing people there, including some lovely members of the Brisbane Writers Crew.
I actually managed to get to a couple of Brisbane Writers Crew catch-ups, which were great, but my attendance was pretty poor at best (not a fan of driving in the city!) I’ll attempt to fix that in 2024.
Albert the Great Australian Dragon – illustrated by the wonderfully talented Amy Carter was published at Easter.
The publisher who had signed Rock Zombie sadly pulled the plug (well… stopped being a publisher altogether!)
Book shop appearance at the excellent Highlands Books in Emerald!
Wrote two stories (and narrated them!) for Pleased! A Beatles inspired anthology edited by the awesome Gayle Ramage.
Had two stories published in the amazing Australian horror anthology, Nightmare Fuel, courtesy of the wonderful Emma Nayfie.
The opening chapter of my comedy/fantasy novel, Won’t Somebody Please Think of the Orcs?! was read out by the exceptional lads of The Failing Writers Podcast.
My Christmas ghost story, In The House of Trembling Madness, was also read out in the Christmas special of the same pod, thanks lads!
Impromptu book signing at Book Face Orion, Springfield!
Reindeer Games 2: Rein Harder with a Vengeance was released for Christmas and did quite well… though not as well as Reindeer Games 1 (for the second year running!)
The Sword and the Hounds cover reveal!
And I wrote three novels, two novellas, seven short stories, submitted to publishers twenty-one times, got four acceptances (short stories), twelve rejections, and radio silence from the rest…oh, and you know, went to work and earned a living and whatnot (plus moved house…and got bitten by a snake…and went through a tornado…but I did get a full size pool table for next to nothing so happy days!)

Damn. That’s a big year. So, what’s next?

Well, The Sword and the Hounds will be published in April, so I’m very much looking forward to that. If Rock Zombie doesn’t find a home by the middle of the year I’ve decided to self-publish it for Halloween. I wrote myself into a corner with Reindeer Games, so I’m going to have to write Reindeer Games 3: Sleigh by December. I’m also working on a series of Easter stories in the same vein, but that’ll be for 2025. This year I want to finish writing the ‘unnamed WW2’ novel I’ve had on the go for a year, create an Arthur Crazy graphic novel tie-in (to further explain an event that happens in The Sword and the Hounds), and get started on Arthur Crazy #5. I’d also like to find homes for The Dragoman and Won’t Somebody Please Think of the Orcs?! So, you know, nothing crazy 😀

Thanks for reading, folks!