Hey folks,

I hope you’re all keeping well. I’ve some updates for you this week!

I’ve had a productive couple of months here at Hamilton Industries. I sent the final book in the Blood of Kings trilogy away for its developmental edit back in early December, so am well on track to release that in the coming Spring. It’s pretty cold here at the moment, so I’m looking forward to that (Spring, that is!).

Right now, I’m working on the third Alpha Protocol book, which as usual is a lot of fun to write, and a nice change from the boundaries fantasy places on your work. I always really enjoy the opportunity to explore something completely new in my writing, and Alpha Protocol has given me the opportunity to do that.

I’ve pretty ambitious plans for this year in terms of the work I want to get done as with the end of the Blood of Kings series, I’ve brought to a conclusion the broader story arc that I was exploring across all of the different series set in the Middle Sea world. With the release of that book, I’m going to take a break from that setting.

There’s a story idea that I’ve been playing around with for quite a while now. About 5 years now that I think about it! I’d originally planned setting it in the Middle Sea world, but as the story idea developed, I started to think it would be better suited to something new, free from the confines of the Middle Sea.

So, what I’m getting to is that I’ve a new story planned, one that will probably go on longer than my usual preference for trilogies, and it will be set in an entirely new world.

Back when I started the Middle Sea with Society of the Sword, I was really fascinated with Renaissance Europe, and most of my stories were developed out of that fascination. Over the years I’ve flitted about deep and prolonged interests in specific periods, from Ancient Rome to the later Early Modern Period (7 Years War, Napoleonic Period etc…) to the Second World War, to the Dark Ages, to the Ancient and Pre Ancient Periods and to the Medieval.

For the last while the dark ages—that vacuum left by the fall of the Roman Empire—the period out of which modern Europe as we know it started to take shape as been my main area of interest. With that in mind, you can expect there to be more of a ‘traditional’ fantasy feel to the setting of my upcoming series, one which also draws a lot of inspiration from European folklore, myths, and legends, much of which will come from my home country of Ireland.

I’m hoping to have the first book in that series ready for release sometime early next year, so keep checking in for updates on that! I’ll be back to some mini painting for next week! See you then!