News Roundup…

Following the news that episode 1 of the Man O’War Bookstream is scheduled for November 23rd, quite a bit has been happening lately.

To watch the Bookstream you’ll have to buy some form of membership, which start at a measly £2 for an entire series (Man O’War’s is 18 episodes long, around 10 hours of content), and go up to £69 for lifetime membership.

I’ve republished my short fantasy story A Warm Heart, which was originally published in 2017 by the Woodbridge Press anthology Journeys. It was quite well-received, though quite a few reviewers decided on labelling it as a grimdark piece. I’m not sure about that – I still think it was slightly more witty than most grimdark works, and though I suppose it does have its share of darkness, it’s not without a chink of light to illuminate the way. Years ago I always thought that medieval-style fantasy would the genre I would write in the most, but it’s vanishingly rare on my radar these days, so it was nice to put this piece together. See you what you think.

I’m still seeking a home for The Hole In The Sky. I received a terrible/marvellous rejection letter from an agent who’ll remain nameless but who described the book as “an extraordinary piece of work” and “wonderfully sharp, with amazing energy and just the right amount of headfuckery.” Feedback like that is about as much as anyone could wish for from industry professionals, and yet the response also said that it would be very difficult to sell as a first novel and it was ultimately a no. So I’m feeling a weird combination of impatience / encouragement / frustration / vindication right now. As a friend put it, “there must be nothing more headfucky than to be told that this book has *it* but I can’t sell *it*.” The upshot is that HITS may have to wait until I’m established in the industry with other works.

Which is lucky, as I’m almost finished The Green Man first draft, with its Latin quotations and footnotes, monstrous Ioannic visions and its investigation into the truthfulness of experiences that occur outside the ontological presuppositions we make for ourselves. Just the sort of commercial airport stuff that’ll get me noticed. Huzzah. On the other hand, it’ll be around 80,000 words long, which is just over half the length of HITS.

Enjoy the weekend!