I’ve been neglecting this blog for some time – there’s a good reason for that. Readers who follow my Facebook author page will already know that I’m working on a new novel, the first book in an adult fantasy duology, to be published in early 2025 by New Dawn Publishing. New Dawn is a recently established publisher specialising in speculative fiction. They’re located in Perth, Western Australia, and as I live in the same city I am able to deal with them easily, including person to person. That’s a real bonus on the long journey from starting to write a novel to seeing it in print.
So why, after 24 published novels, have I shifted from the major publishing houses to a small independent? In a nutshell, it’s because the folks at New Dawn believed in the project of my heart, the story I truly wanted to write at this point in my career (quite late, possibly a retirement project.) Some of you will know that I had artistic differences with my trusted longterm agent about what I would write after the Warrior Bards series. I was very keen on a Baba Yaga novel, which I outlined in some detail, but I could not get my agent’s approval for that in the form I wanted. In retrospect I’m quite glad that didn’t go ahead, as the last couple of years have seen an explosion of Baba Yaga-related fiction: novels, series, short stories, all with their own takes on this magnificent folkloric character. My agent also turned down some other proposals because he did not believe the major publishers would be interested. This led to quite a dark and introspective period for me, not helped by the pandemic and my underlying angst about the state of the environment and world politics. So I sat in my cave with the two mini-wolves and brooded on it all for a long while, not writing much. That meant no new novel in 2022 or 2023 (and no prospect of one in 2024.) Readers expect a new book every year from me, but sometimes it’s just not possible to keep up the pace.
So, a change of publisher, a new burst of creativity, and the project on hand. The mood of the series is captured in this epic tree image, taken by me on a recent trip to Finland which was part book research, part holiday. The photo was taken in Punkaharju Nature Reserve, in Savonlinna. The new series is not set in Finland, but has a fictional setting that bears a geographical similarity to various countries in that general region. The plot centres around a phenomenon that is found only in certain parts of the world. The magnificent and very well managed forests of northern Finland, along with the beautiful lakes, were an ideal place to soak up the right atmosphere. The series has a strong environmental theme, a neurodiverse central character, and a small dog who is more than she seems.
I’m happy to let you know I’m more than halfway through writing this and on track to meet my deadline, including time for further revisions along the way. I’ve become quite attached to the characters. I’m also hoping to have a collection of my short stories published, perhaps in late 2024. I have continued to contribute stories to various anthologies, and now have more than enough to fill up a book. It would include reprints of most of the stories I’ve had published since Prickle Moon came out in 2013, plus a couple of new ones I would write for this publication. I’m hoping one of them will be a novella based in the world of the Wildwood series. I just need to fit in time around writing the novel.
Readers from beyond Australia and New Zealand – at this point I can’t promise the new series will be quickly available internationally, as this is a smallish Australian publisher. However, the folks at New Dawn know I have readers more or less everywhere, and they will be doing their best to spread the word about the series to their overseas contacts. Closer to publication date we should have more information for you.
