Recent Giveaway

Many thanks to all those who showed interest in my work via the recent Giveaway of the five signed hardcopies of Arrival, the first part of the Warriors of the Continuum Trilogy. The trilogy took over six years to create, write, reform, and make whole, and began with the simple premise of a lad from a small village finding an artefact in the nearby hills that would thrust him – and Jess and Beth – into a past age of emerging conflict. As I embarked on the journey with them, I encountered a cast of characters that I hadn’t expected when starting the work, including: Shadow and Sy; the ice-dragon; the bookseller; Fen, the wolf daemon; Naga, Mother and shaman of the Iyes; and Growl. It later reminded me of something David Gemmell had said about him starting with a character in the woods then following that character out into the world, recording the tale as it evolved. It certainly felt like this to me with my work.

The trilogy – Arrival, Deception, Life – is out there now in both print and e-book editions. I planned from the very start that I would write the whole trilogy before publishing. First, it’s a pain for readers if they have to wait an age for the second and third books to come out. Second, it allowed me to go back and rework the manuscripts to make sure the whole hung together. And, that was important! No, it was critical! I was able to plant considered foreshadowing into parts one and two (and maybe even into the epigraphs of each chapter!). And, after knowing the complete story, I was able to strengthen key plot points and character arcs in parts one and two. I would have been completely hamstrung on Deception and Life if I’d published Arrival in its first form and had it as a static reference.

My tale takes its own time to tell – some will say too long! – but I wanted space for each of the characters to be understood; for a reader – and for me – to think back on where the character started, and where they ended up at the end of their journey. And I knew the ‘truth’ of the tale was well hidden, that it would take time to break through the veils hiding it. That truth isn’t given up easily, so the complexity within the tale grows, especially heading into Life. Again, some may say it weaves in a little too much complexity, but I reckon the arcs of Jessica, Lanky, Beth, Shadow, and Erin carry you through it. And there are times with some books I read that I let the detail drop, and just enjoy the ride!

Thank you again for showing interest in this work. I know only five of you could win a copy of the book this time – and I dropped those five books off at the village post office yesterday morning (could be a while to cross the great sea) – but I will be running another Giveaway later this year for the second part Deception, so look out for that. In the meantime, I hope you’ll take a dip into the journey of Beth, Jess, Lanky and the others … a few people seem to like it ;)

All the best for now, and enjoy your reading.

R.