The Chronicles of Cahill – 2024
The end of 2025 has finally come.\n
This has been a strange year for me. It’s been one of the greatest years of my life, both personally and professionally. But it has also been filled with challenges and despite writing a metric fucktonne of words, I didn’t actually release anything this year except for a short story by the name of The Blood that Burns the Winter Snow. If you haven’t checked it out, you should. It’s about 5,000 words and is a look into the eyes of Vars Bryer on a winter’s night in The Glade. You can grab it here for 99c\/99p or the equivalent in whichever lovely country you reside.\n And yet, I have watched The Bound and The Broken continue to grow and build since Of War and Ruin’s launch back in January last year. It’s been something special. To see that you all trust me so much that I have the space and time to truly craft a book I’m proud of. Not every author has that luxury and I appreciate it to no end.\n I launched Of Blood and Fire on March 17th 2021. Before that I was working in a lab in Dublin. In the three and a half years since that day, I have written 1.5 million words in\u00a0The Bound and The Broken, spanning four full novels, three novellas, and two short stories. When I look back and really take a minute to let that sink in, it fills me with an immense sense of fulfilment and thanks. I’m also coming up to the 400,000 books sold mark. Which is just mind boggling.\n I want to use this as an opportunity to say: follow your dreams. It’s not always easy \u2013 in truth, it’s never easy \u2013 but I’ve learned something truly important over the last few years.\n Doubt has killed more dreams than failure ever could.\n You can never fail at something you don’t attempt, and there is a comfort in that. But we have a short time on this earth and each and every one of us owes it to ourselves to take the shot. One of my favourite quotes of all time is by Michael Jordan.\n I\u2019ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I\u2019ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I\u2019ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I\u2019ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.\n I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. Those words have followed me for a long time. And that’s why I’m sharing them with you now. If you have dreams you want to follow, allow yourself to fail. If you have a child, a sibling, a parent, a friend, who wants to chase those dreams, support them.\n I would never be here without the support of my wife, my family, my friends, and of course you. Your belief, support, passion, and trust is what keeps my dreams flowing.\n Now, this is the end of my preachy, ‘believe in yourself’ segment. But I think it’s an important thing to say when I look back and reflect on everything over the last year.\n Okay, projects and special editions that have started in this year and are carrying on into 2025 and beyond. *cracks knuckles*\n 2024 has been a big year of building. A lot of things have been started this year that I’m incredibly excited about.\n The Broken Binding Acquisition of The Bound and The Broken print rights\n This was probably the biggest thing to happen in 2024. For those of you that don’t know, The Broken Binding stepped into the publishing world this year with the creation of the very special The Broken Binding Press.\n Their first acquistion? The prints rights for the entire The Bound and The Broken series in a blockbuster six figure deal. I could not be more excited about this and I think this is a good place to explain what exactly this means.\n\nThe print rights are the only things sold. This means I am still fully in control of ebook rights, with my audiobook rights sold to Podium Audio.\nSo am I still an ‘indie‘ author? Yes. I think the term is technically ‘hybrid’ but I personally believe that is the future of publishing anyways. Being indie while having a print rights deal is kind of the dream as far as I’m concerned. I have full control over the story and its publishing.\nThe entire series will be republished in Hardcover \u2013 and eventually in Paperback \u2013 with new covers designed by the truly incredible Tom Roberts (I’ve already seen the covers for\u00a0Of Blood and Fire and\u00a0The Fall and they are absolutely stunning).\nThe books will be available worldwide with\u00a0much better availability and pricing. They should also be in bookstores near you \u2013 as long as the launch goes well, hah. Which is something pretty incredible for me.\nOf Empires and Dust will be published like normal in March 2025 (that date might shift sliiightly, but I’m thinking it won’t) and the new covers will transition over later.\nThe fifth book and fourth novella in the series will be published in the new editions\u00a0and the self-published editions at the same time.\u00a0My new print publisher has agreed to do this because they are amazing people and we both want to make sure that my readers who have been supporting me all along can still get a full matching set of all the books in their original cover style. Don’t worry, I got you.\nThe current cover editions will stay on sale until we start announcing the pre-orders for the new editions. I will give you a heads up when that is coming because I know some people will want to have the original covers on their shelves.\nDoes this affect the\u00a0Broken Binding special editions we have been doing? No, not at all. They will continue to go to press on a yearly basis (with some wiggle room) as normal. I’ll give an update on that further down.\nWe are doing our best to make these new cover ‘Traditional’ releases as best value for money as possible. There will be new black and white art, new maps, stunning new covers, and all the bells and whistles \u2013 foiling, embossing, debossing, sprayed edges, etc.\n\n The Bound and The Broken Tarot Deck\n This is definitely one of my favourite projects that’s started across 2024. For those of you who don’t know, a Major Arcana Tarot Deck for The Bound and The Broken is already under development, and is scheduled for a potential Kickstarter release in 2025! In fact, I have three new reveals for you! One for November, one for December, and one as my Christmas present to you all!\n Farda as Death\n Rokka as the Wheel of Fortune\n And our beloved Dann as The Fool\n Feast your eyes![image error][image error]\n [image error]\n And for those of you who haven’t seen them all together, here is every revealed card so far!\n [image error]\n The Broken Binding Special Editions\n \n I’ve had a lot of questions about this, so I’m going to keep it brief.\n Of Darkness and Light special edition is basically ready. We’ve just had a few small snags right at the end that have stopped us from keeping to our regular November\/December release schedule. We have the cover, we have 18 unbelievable pieces of art, including an internal piece that will blow your socks off.\n We’re just waiting on a few small pieces, and we will do the cover reveal\/pre-order very soon! I don’t want to give a precise date right now but I’m hoping it will go on pre-order in January!\n The other question we’ve had has been: will we do a reprint for Of Blood and Fire and The Fall?\n In general our answer to this has been no. Why? Because we sold these books as a limited print run to those who bought them, and it feels disingenuous to then turn around and say ‘no, actually, because we can earn more money we’re going back on our word’. Now, saying that, we are working on a way that this could work. It would involve bringing down some of the specs, no numbering, and some other bits. It’s not 100%, but we’re looking at it. Also, there are some other Special Editions coming that I think will make you very happy.\n And don’t forget, I promised I wouldn’t do a big fancy edition of these books myself until the series was finished. And I’m keeping to that word. So when the series is finished I absolutely will be creating extremely gorgeous editions that will be something truly special.\n There are quite a few projects that started this year that I actually still have to keep under wraps. So what I’m going to do is give you some small hints:\n What would you say if The Old Tongue was a fully usable language, with a dictionary of words, a complete phonology and pronunciation guide, full grammar and syntax, rules for complex sentences and multiple clauses, complete documentation on historical linguistic developments, changes in phonology, grammar, and lexicon spanning 2000 years of history? That would be pretty cool, wouldn’t it? *wink*\n And wouldn’t it be really cool if The Bound and The Broken had a board game? Like one with resin cast miniature dragons and stuff? That would be sweet.\n And what if every dragon had a full illustration? With comparative sizes and detailed sketches? That would be cool as well.\n How about a full world guide with characters, places, events, timelines, and a boat-load of new illustrations? Yup. Cool. Kewl kewl kewl.\n There are a\u00a0a lot of projects happening in the background that started this year and will be flowing through the next few years to come.\nTour and Conventions\n This year I had the immense pleasure to go on the longest tour I’ve ever had. Six full weeks, 18 flights, and events in the UK, Ireland, USA, and Denmark.\n I attended DragonCon, WorldCon, Fantasy Festival Denmark, and had multiple sold out signing and Q&A events in London, Dublin, Arlington Texas, and DFW Texas. It was incredible and it was so special to get to finally meet so many of you in person. It truly was a highlight of the year for me. I just wanted to give this its own section so I could say a special thank you to every single one of you for making the incredibly journeys to meet me in person. People travelling 18 hours across the US to meet me at DragonCon and my texas events was incredible. And one amazing reader who flew all the way from Prague to meet me in London.\n Thinking back on those moments right now has me smiling ear to ear in my office chair, and has me looking forward to more events across the world in 2025!\n I also just wanted to say a special thank you to Patrick at Barnes and Noble Southlake, Morgan at Pantego Books, Laura at Forbidden Planet, and all the team at Fantasy Festival Denmark for being so genuinely incredible.\n This was just a little something that I was prompted to write after recieving a few emails from people asking me where they can get signed books (particularly in the US), and cool merch for the series.\n So, if you’re liviing in the UK, my go to place to get signed The Bound and The Broken hardbacks and paperbacks is The Broken Binding (they currently have all the hardbacks in stock, but there’s not many left). You can grab them here: The Broken Binding\n Forbidden Planet Megastore in London should also have some signed copies left on the shelves!\n If you’re in the US and wanting to get your hands on signed hardbacks and paperbacks, Pantego Books in Arlington still have stock of all the signed books except for Of War and Ruin (that one always sells out fast). Pantego are amazing and deserve all your support! You can find them here: Pantego Books\n For merch, my merch partner RealmOne is run by two readers of the series who reached out to me way back in like 2022? Lou and Pete. They are angels of human beings and they put so much work into creating amazing hoodies, pins, stickers, t-shirts, punny mugs, and everything under the sun. There are some really cool pieces of TBATB merch still available, including some exclusive\u00a0Day of the Dragon bits that are almost gone. You can get some merch here: RealmOne\nWhat to expect from 2025?\n At the end of last year, I predicted that 2024 would be even more hectic than 2023. That prediction was absolutely true. 2024 was the most hectic year of my life. What about 2025? I’m predicting much of the same for 2025, except this time I’ll have a few book releases to go with it.\n The first thing to expect? The fourth book in The Bound and The Broken smashing open your bookshelves! This will be the longest book in\u00a0The Bound and The Broken, and I firmly believe that each word is earned. But I’ll just have to wait and see what you think, won’t I?\n [image error]\n I predicted Of Empires and Dust, would be around the same size as Of War and Ruin, and that turned out to be a pretty accurate prediction. Of War and Ruin finished at about 437k words, which Of Empires and Dust is currently standing at 480k words. I think Of Empires and Dust will come down a bit to about 460k\/470k.\n However I did predict a May finish for the draft and a late 2024 finish for the book launch. That didn’t go to plan for a myriad of reasons. But all in all, I was just far too optimistic with how much writing I’d be able to get done in a time where a lot was happening. But it’s still a 480k word book written and ready to publish in 2 years. So I’m pretty happy with that.\n This book, for me, is where a lot of the threads start coming together for the finale. It’s where the crumbs that have been laid throughout the series start to actually mean something, where the character arcs begin to really come to power. The characters here should be almost unrecognisable from those we knew in Of Blood and Fire. As the saying goes: You’re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy.\n I’m very excited about this book. This is what I wrote last year:\n There has been a lot building throughout the series, so many threads being weaved, seeds being sown, and this is where everything starts to come full circle. I have some major reveals lined up for you, some epic scenes, and dragons \u2013 a lot of motherfucking dragons.\n Now that the book is finished, I can confirm all of this is true.\n Okay, important questions and answers:\n When can you expect to see\u00a0Of Empires and Dust hit shelves? Will all formats be released at the same time? Are there any things readers should note before reading Of Empires and Dust? Well, the first thing I’ll be jumping into is the last key novella in the series that will be hitting your shelves before the year’s end.\n I’m not going to give any hints on what this specifically is, because I want it to be a surprise.\n I will also plan to work on a lot of short stories this year, and will be including them in the new Patreon I’ll be setting up (don’t worry, they will be released outside Patreon eventually but my Patreon subscribers will get first dibs and a lot of involvement). I’m not going to talk too much about Patreon as that’s something for future emails.\n I will also begin planning and writing for the fifth and final book in The Bound and The Broken \u2013 *GASP*. Don’t worry, I have a lot more plans for the world, which I’ll talk about a little below. Some of you might not this, some of you might now, but the title for the fifth book has already been revealed!\n [image error]\n I know. I know. It’s a bit crazy to think about the series coming to an end. But I’m a firm believer that all good things must end. Nobody wants to have the series and characters you love overstay their welcome and live long enough to become the villains.\n But I promise, I will handle it with care and love. With that, I need to also state that the liklihood is we won’t be seeing this book until late 2027\/early 2028. I know I had hoped for it to come a bit earlier, but that needed to change.\n Why, you ask? Well, honestly, I’ve absolutely killed myself with this pace over the last few years and I have my first little baby coming into the world in January and I want to make sure I’m there both for them (yes, ‘them’ is the correct terminology in the singular. We don’t know the gender and they\/them is used when the gender of an individual is not known. My baby is not an ‘it’, they’re not an inanimate plastic rod), but also for my wonderful wife. I want to be as good a father as I had. And that’s going to require slowing down slightly, or at the very least, taking the pressure off my shoulders a tiny bit.\n I could just not say anything and work away at my own pace, but I believe in accountability and honesty with my readers. I’m going to take a little longer with this last book, but I’m going to put my absolute heart and soul into it. I absolutely promise you.\n You will still get the next novella in between then and now, along with some short stories, and I’m not going to stop writing Of Gods and Ashes. I will be writing it every single day, just at a slightly slower pace. And I’ll also be taking a bit longer once it’s finished to make sure I can get all formats launched togeher \u2013 including audio. And really make a big event of it, because I think this series deserves an event.\n Now, some of you might be asking ‘but what next, Ryan? Are we leaving Epheria and the world around it forever?’\n Well, dear reader, let me tell you: abso-fucking-lutely not. The isn’t\u00a0the end, it is simply\u00a0an end.\n So together, why don’t we all fold our legs, pinch our fingers together in that yoga pose we always see on TV, and\u00a0breathe.\n I did say this in my end of year wrap up, but it’s worth saying again for those who never saw that: This will not be the last series I write in the world of The Bound and The Broken.\n Last year, I gave you some titles of the prospective new series and let you guess what they would be about. This time, I’m going to give you some more information and I’m going to add another one! All of these titles are tentative \u2013 just as an FYI.\n \nDawn of the Wolf\n Dawn of the Wolf is the tentative title I have for the series that will be set 3,000 years in the past when humans and druids first set foot on Epherian soil. I am very excited about this.\nThe Age of Honour\n Set a 1,000 years after Dawn of the Wolf, this series will explore the beginnings of the Age of Honour and the state of the world at that time.\nThe Exile and The Huntress\n A series set around Dayne and Belina in the time they spent together from when they meet in The Exile to when Dayne finally goes home. I envision this almost as a fantasy style, Jack-Reacheresque serial.\nThe Chainbreaker Saga\n A story based around Vars Bryer and the legendary Cassian Tal.\n As well as \u00a0as these series, I have plenty of ideas for books and series that are completely unrelated to\u00a0The Bound and The Broken. So I think it’s safe to say that there is\u00a0a lot more to come.\nConventions and appearances\n At this moment, the conventions I’m absolutely planning on attending for 2025 are\n I am definitely planning on visiting some more conventions and events, but this is the short list I’ve put together at the moment.\n I do also plan on holding more bookstore events like I did this year in Texas, Ireland, and the UK. I’ll leave a note in my newsletter about this, but if you’d like me to visit your country\/city, I’d love to know where you are!\n
Projects and Special Editions \n
Signed Books and Merch\n
\nThe 31st of March 2025 is the scheduled release date!\n
\nI intend to have ebook, paperback, and hardback live at the same time (thought sometimes the physical books can have a slight delay). The audiobook however will take a little bit longer as we have to chase the wonderful narrator down and trap him in the recording booth.\n
\nYes. I would very much encourage people to read the novellas before continuing into\u00a0Of Empires and Dust. Is it absolutely necessary to follow the plot? No, but it will massively improve your enjoyment. I consider the novellas to be major parts of this story. I’ve written them so the plot can carry on without them, but they will add major depth to the characters and the richness of the world. They also allow me to go on a lot less ‘side quests’ in my main novels. All three of The Fall, The Exile, and The Ice\u00a0will make a big diference to your reading experience with Of Empires and Dust. It’s a tricky thing to integrate novellas into a series like this, but I do feel it’s the best way to tell this story.\nWhat are my plans ‘writing wise’ for 2025?\n
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I am in Love with your writing and cannot wait for the release in 2025.
