Just a quick update on what’s going on with various projects.
The Coward – It’s just under 3 months until the book is published on 8th June. I’m busy working with the publisher on various things to get the word out. So closer to the time expect a flurry of posts, interviews and so on. I expect more individual reviews to start coming in fairly soon from those who received advanced reading copies of the book. It will also be available on NetGalley very soon, so more people will be picking it up there to read and review ahead of publication.
I should also point out that book 2 of 2 in the series (it’s a duology NOT a trilogy) is written and the first draft is with my publisher. I will begin edits on that later in the year.
The New Book – This is the first in a new trilogy. I can’t say very much about it, not even the title, mostly because it’s very likely the title will change from my original! However, what I can say is that the first draft of this book is done. It’s also a bit of a whopper for me. My books tends to drift in the 110-130K space, but this is currently 146K, and I suspect with editing and later drafts it will only increase and easily break the 150K mark. So maybe 550-600 pages in a normal book. Maybe.
This book was difficult to write for a number of reasons, which is actually a good thing, as it challenged me. I never want to write the same thing twice and become lazy and predictable. It’s very different to anything I’ve done before but it’s also closer to our own world than any of my other books. It is fantasy, and is not historical fantasy, but it does have historic elements. Ugh. It’s hard to talk about. Let’s just say it’s inspired by historic events but there’s a lot of creativity in there as well.
Weird Book – So with the New Book sent off to my agent for feedback, I’m moved back to working on Weird Book. This is an odd project. I previously abandoned it as I didn’t know know if it would find a home and still don’t. It’s a very cross-genre book. It’s different there again to all my other books and an odd duck. I’m enjoying writing it though and it is stretching different muscles, so that’s a good thing.
SF Book – This is something I’ve co-written, also a first. We have a first draft but after some thought and discussion, we felt that we had only scratched the surface of the world we created. So we’re going back to the drawing board and are in the process of restructuring it and rebuilding it, to focus on other areas and I think it will be much better for the additional work. It’s a backburner project, so we are not rushing it. Co-writing is another challenge which keeps me fresh and open-minded.
Other Projects – There are a couple of screenwriting irons in the fire but no news to report on them. Early days but they are ticking along nicely.
That’s about it for the time being. I’m still doing interviews and writing advice videos over on my YouTube channel here, so take a look and subscribe. My most recent interview was with Andrea Stewart, the author of The Bone Shard Daughter.
Making notes on ideas for book 2 of the new trilogy, and scribbling down things for what I want to do after that. Hopefully 2021 will be a better year and by 2022 I’ll be able to walk into a bookshop and attend events in person. Fingers crossed.
Stephen Aryan 
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