Tim Stead's Blog, page 2

The Shadow War

The final edits come back to me on Thursday. It will probably take a week to get through those and release the book as an eBook on Amazon, so I expect it to be available to read by the 12th of August.

Meanwhile, I’ve passed fifty thousand words in the following book. The working title is: Twisted Eye.

I forsee two more Shanakan books after that, and then a new series.

If you enjoy reading my books, I encourage you to leave a rating or review on Amazon or Goodreads. Feedback is always good, and I rely on it for promotion.

Happy reading.

Thousand Cranes

Every now and then I read a book that reminds me of when I was at school. Thousand Cranes is one of those – not because the subject matter or the story is anything to do with school, but it’s the sort of book I used to read then.

Thousand Cranes is not a cheerful book. It’s slender, a mere 147 pages in the edition I read. It’s laser focused on one man and his relationship with three women, and set in Japan. There are a few references to other parts of his life – his dead father, his dead mother (you begin to see the cheerful nature of it). The women are, essentially, his father’s two former mistresses and one of their daughters.

There’s a subtlety, or maybe even prudishness, about the seamier side of his relationships with these women, and a hint that perhaps the daughter is his half sister, but an awful lot of the detail focusses on the tea ceremony and old Japanese porcelain.

It’s a nice piece of writing, though may have lost something in translation, but the portrayal of the female characters was not kind – maybe the wrong word – and the book does touch on suicide.

Was it a good book? The Nobel committee clearly thought so and I certainly got something out of it, but I find it hard to recommend.

The Killing Moon

NK Jemisin is a very good writer. I loved the Broken Earth books, so I approached this one with high expectations. It’s a tale set in a civilization not unlike ancient Egypt and Nubia, as she explains in her author’s note. Most of the action takes place in the city of Gujaareh.

The central concept is the worship of Hananja, goddess of dreams. All magic seems to revolve around those dreams and the four elements that can be gathered therefrom. Principal characters include Ehiru and Nijiri, gatherers who take dreamblood from the dying, the Prince of Gujaareh, and Sunandi, the Kisuati ambassador to Gujaareh.

I’m not going to spoil the plot, but the story revolves around the ambition of the prince and the gatherers’ opposition to it.

It was a good read, but I found the book oddly less engaging than the Broken Earth stories. Maybe it was the background, but I think it was the characters. I found it hard to empathise with the gatherers. They seemed altogether too uncompromising, too certain of their own path. Sunandi, on the other hand, was a joy to read.

Don’t get me wrong. This is a very good book, but for me not quite up there with previous ‘Jemisins’.
Recommended, because you may well disagree with me about that, and it’s certainly one of the best books I’ve read this year.

The Shadow War

…and more.

Here’s a quick peek at the cover of the next Shanakan book. I’ve done the me-edit, my own attempt to iron out the typo’s and foolish errors, but doubtless my editors will find more.

And I’ve already started the next book. This time it’s back to Samara for another Sam Hekman story. The working title is: The Twisted Eye. I may have started a few days too early. The central thing, the crime, hasn’t solidified, so I may have to be satisfied with slow progress until that happens.

The Shadow War

The next Shanakan book (Number 7), The Shadow War, has been through its first edit pass and work on the cover is at an advanced stage. I expect to be ordering proof copies within the week. As those who follow the process will know, it takes a couple of weeks for the proofs to arrive and a few more after that for my readers to get back to me with comments.

At this point I expect there to be at least four more Shanakan books, but it may go up to five to make the round dozen.

Free eBook

Just a heads up that The Seventh Friend eBook will be free on June 3rd. Get a copy or tell your friends!

The Shadow War

Getting close to the end of this book now. It’s the seventh book in The Fourth Age of Shanakan and covers the period of Cal Serhan’s exile from his world. This is, essentially, what happened while he was gone, and connects with the end of The Path of Thirteen Steps. It will be a while before this emerges. I edit the thing myself, then order some proofs and pass those to my editors. There’s also a cover to be designed. It almost takes as long as writing the book, which I’d better get back to, right now.

The Path of Thirteen Steps

Good news for all you that follow my writing. The next book: The Path of Thirteen Steps, has been published today. This is the sixth book in The Fourth Age of Shanakan and follows on from The Wanderer. It relates Cal Serhan’s adventures in London and his struggle to return home.

The next book in the series: The Shadow War is well underway. In fact, I expect to complete the first draft by the end of May. Currently finding it hard to stop writing. The Shadow War is the story of what happened back on Shanakan while Cal was dealing with his stranding in our own version of reality.

Hope you enjoy it.

More Books

The Wanderer, the fifth book in The Fourth Age of Shanakan, is now available as a paperback and e-book on Amazon. But there’s more. The sixth book – The Path of Thirteen Steps – is now at the editing stage. In addition I have begun the Seventh: Working title – The Shadow War. I’m pretty focussed on Shanakan now and hope to knock out two a year until it’s finished.

In a separate development, I’ve written a shortish YA novel: Maggie Crow. That’s on Amazon, too. It started out as a writing exercise for one of the writers’ groups that I run, and I kept coming back to the characters, so I filled it out, polished the plot, and a friend, Ben, created the cover.

It seems that I just can’t stop writing.

The Wanderer

Happy Christmas to all.

Just a brief post to announce that “The Wanderer” the fifth book in “The Fourth Age of Shanakan” is now available at an e-book on Amazon.

There is a small issue with the paperback cover, but that will follow in a little while.

The Wanderer continues the story of Cal Serhan and we return to Helena Pelorus who we last saw in Scar Felice when her blindness was cured. Hope you enjoy it.