October Newsletter - The Fallen is written ... for now.

It is done - for now. The Fallen was submitted to my publisher, Duckworth Overlook, on Monday 5th October. It had gone through nine rewrites and taken me 15 months to complete. It has driven me to distraction, tears, drink, exhaustion, and quite possibly the edge of sanity. And it's still not done!

What happens now is Duckworth read it, suggest edits and rewrites, and the process starts all over again. The big difference between now and then, is that I finally have a story that I believe in. Whereas everything before hung together like a poorly made tracksuit, the new manuscript has the feel of a Savile Row three-piece suit. There's room for improvement (of course), but it is beginning to read like a worthy sequel to The Damned, the reaction to which has been fantastic - and more than daunting!

I sincerely hope the manuscript is well received. I've worked harder on it than I've worked on anything in my entire life. In the first three weeks of September alone, I worked 147 hours on the manuscript (I know, I tracked my time - this on top of the 'boring day job'). Thank goodness I have an understanding wife, and kids who get into scrapes but know how to get out of them without me as well.

I won't give too much away, as it's liable to change anyway, but rest assured (for those who've read The Damned) the current manuscript has all the old favourites, plus a few others to haunt your nightmares. It's been written with care and love, but also a big fat lump of adrenaline, hate and violence. You have been warned!

After all this hard work, it's wonderful to see the world beginning to take Inquisitor Poldek Tacit to their hearts - who knew such a thing could be possible?! At the end of September, Tacit broke into the Top 25 Fantasy charts down under (and was chosen by Amazon Australia as one of their 'Picks of the Month' for October on Kindle), the top 40 fantasy charts in Japan (!!) and was a Top Ten bestseller in the Netherlands! Its success, to date, has stunned me, especially as I wrote it only to unleash a few demons of my own, never to produce a bestseller. I only hope that I can build on The Damned and do everyone who read and loved that book proud with an even better sequel. Believe me, between my agent, Duckworth and I, we intend to!
Tarn