The Current Situation

Many of you will have been disappointed at the postponement of 2016's promised novellas, I Dream of Damastion and The Granite Whistle, and I imagine even more disappointed at the lack of From Shattered Stars appearing on the Kindle store and Amazon paperbacks list.

Firstly, an abundance of profuse apologies for the wait. And I really do mean that, because I know that a year is a long time to wait between books. Granted, many series gain new entries over several years (and sometimes even decades), but this was not supposed to be one of those.

The reason for these delays is, essentially, the curse of 2016. As it was for many people it was a horrible, horrible year for me. Just because it will be remembered — amongst other things — as the year in which gravitational waves were proven to exist, doesn't mean it wasn't lousy, demoralising, demotivating, and generally... well, shit.

I'm not going to go into the details here, because they are quite personal. Also that would feel very much like proffering excuses. Suffice to say that if you're angry at me for not having these titles out yet you can rest assured that I've paid for it.

So my plan now is to act as if 2016 never happened, in writing terms. The launch of From Shattered Stars is now the priority, since the novellas are not essential to the overall story; they are merely there to expand the universe a bit and offer different perspectives on the Great War.

The good news here is that the delay has allowed me to further develop several major plot points and character arcs. The novel which will be released this spring is going to be quite different from the book which would have appeared in December had I slogged away at it through all the heartache of 2016. The opening few chapters now have a more logical, internally consistent structure than I originally planned. Some key characters are now exposed to events and conversations which better utilise their established personalities and recent histories, and which also set them up wonderfully for all the terrible things they will have to face in the finale, Whom Gods Shall Fear.

So in some ways, this has actually been a helpful interlude!