173 - January 17, 2021 - The Ravenglass Chronicles, Birth of Assassins, Brandon sanderson, Egypt

Welcome to Jon's author diary for the week ending January 17, 2021.

We’re a few weeks into the year, and I’m still writing 2020. Oh well.

If you’re a regular listener to my weekly Author Diary podcast, you’ll know that last week I had a crappy time dealing with the latest UK lockdown. I’ve not been able to see my mum, siblings, or friends since the summer, and it’s been very difficult to keep hope and have faith that things will get better.

So, this week, I decided to dig deep to get the words down. Even though we’re home-schooling my son, I’ve been getting up at 5.30am to write.

And it’s been going well.

I’ve passed the 20,000-word mark on my next book, which has the working title Birth of Assassinsand is the prequel to a new series set in in the Ravenglass Universe.

I figured it would be nice to move from telling the story of a magical princess to one about a gang of thieves.

It’s been a lot of fun discovering a group of new characters and I’m struggling to keep up with the ideas I’m getting for the series.

I’m doing this book as a freebie for you guys to thank you for your support over the past year. I know it’s been hard for everyone, so I’ll let you know when it’s ready and you can download your free copy.

I was disappointed this week to have to move a holiday I had booked to Egypt this coming March, but with the UK in lockdown, it’s looking highly unlikely that we’ll be able to travel any time soon.

So we’ve moved it to November. Hopefully, by then, there will be a little more normality…hopefully.

Egypt is one of my bucket-list places, so I can’t wait to go. I have wanted to see the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx since I can remember.

And maybe, just maybe, I’ll discover for myself whether the pyramids were built by aliens, or whether, as I’m inclined to believe, they were actually built by humans.

We shall see.

Review milestone

I was very pleased to see this week that the first boxset in the Ravenglass Chronicles passed the 500 reviews mark on Amazon. And 70 percent of those reviews were five-star!

I’ve not had a book go over 100 reviews before, so that’s a nice achievement unlocked.

Long may it continue.

Release news

In terms of releases, the second half of the Ravenglass Chronicles (episodes twelve-to-twenty) is now live.

So, for those of you waiting for me to complete the series, it’s all done and dusted and available to enjoy.

Click HERE to order.