Happy Christmas and thanks for reading
When I set out to write and publish the seven novels of The Repulse Chronicles in as many years, I had more than a few moments of doubt. Looking back now, it oddly seems not to have been quite as challenging, and I strain to recall looking forlornly at my dire sales figures in 2019, with only Onslaught and Invasion published. Few readers invested themselves in a series consisting of only two books.
But then Covid-19 happened and a new job that promised a great deal of travelling abruptly became a job where I saved all travelling and commuting time. Book 3 and Book 4 saw sales improve and then I blinked and suddenly the seventh and final novel was written, this year.
If you’ve read the series, thank you. It’s been a fun journey to expand the war I created in 2016’s Repulse: Europe at War 2062–2064, and I’m quite relieved to have made it to the end on my own, self-imposed schedule. When I began in 2017, I’d hoped to write longer novels than I have; but on the other hand, I think I’ve written enough, and now would not change a thing. Certain statistics tend to bear that out: this year, the total number of readers of my books since I began self-publishing reached 20,000, including KENP pages read, which is just approaching 5 million pages in total. In addition, I was chuffed when, in July, Amazon awarded Aftermath a KDP All Stars bonus. The amount didn’t change my life, but it was your appreciation of the book that led to the bonus, and that was priceless.
Like most of us, I’m not sure what 2025 will bring. I do have a few partially written ideas that continue to fester ferment in my imagination and may yet yield something worth publishing 
As regular readers might expect, I will mark the end of this most deeply divisive year of the Age of Stupid with another satirically predictive post next week. Although I got most of the details wrong a year ago, there was one thing I did get right in last year’s post.
In the meantime, I wish you all a Happy Christmas with those closest to you. Here are a few pics of the James household this evening as we celebrate the traditional Polish Wigilia.
As always at this time of the year, Happy Christmas and thanks for reading.
