Hi folks!
2022 will always be a special year for me. I remember writing sci fi novels as a young teen and being desperate to be published. I wanted it so badly it was like this constant urgency within me. Time has gone on and the intensity of those feelings has faded, but being published has still been my life's ambition. In February 2022 that finally happened with The Justice of Kings--and on the Sunday Times bestseller list no less. Not only that, but I got to geek out over the fact that it was Fonda Lee's favourite book of 2022 as well! Fonda is a writer I hugely respect and admire and so that was a wonderful moment.
Anyway. Enough fan.. girling? Boying? Fan-manning? Here's hoping this is all the very beginning of a long and prosperous writing career.
Justice of Kings
JOK continues to be available in all markets and in all formats. As well as Spanish, Polish, Czech, Russian and German, I'm pleased to say there will also be a Turkish edition as well. A nice way to round the year out.
Speaking of foreign language editions, for those of you of the Teutonic persuasion, JoK is getting a BEAUTIFUL crate edition from Chest of Fandoms (the picture is a link):
So be sure to check that out and mash that order button (if you speak German).
Whilst I'm on the subject of special editions, if you missed out on the Goldsboro GSFF edition of JoK, they have some copies going spare here ahead of the release of Tyranny of Faith:
JoK has also been hitting some end of year favourites lists which is lovely, including
As well as a bunch of others.
I've done a ton of interviews this year but my most recent was with the lovely guys at Page One podcast. It's a 90 minute deep-cut in which I discuss all manner of things, including my self pubbed "career" before JoK. Check it out here:
Pre-Empire of the Wolf Vonvalt / Bressinger Short: "A Reputation for Prudence"
Reminder that I have a short story in issue 31 of Grimdark Magazine which follows a younger Vonvalt and Bressinger as they tackle a gristly case in the small Denner town of Baniskhaven. This short has some ties and easter eggs to book 2 and 3 so the Vonvalt completionists will not want to miss it!
Also the short story was featured on the cover(!):
The Tyranny of Faith
Pre-order it! DO IT.
It's coming Feb 2023 but it is currently available on NetGalley for at least the USA (not sure what's going on in other jurisdictions but one presumes it'll be available there too).
Tyranny of Faith will be getting a sexy Goldsboro exclusive edition which you can pre-order here:
The Broken Binding will also be doing signed hardbacks which you can pre-order here:
Not much in the way of early reviews yet except for this belter of a starred review from Kirkus:
Also cropping up on a lot of Most Anticipated lists which is always lovely to see:
Remember that I did a plot summary of the Justice of Kings for those delving back into the Empire of the Wolf, and that can be found here.
Book 3 news
Book 3 is finished in first draft form and I am waiting on my editor to come back to me. This won't happen until February so I'm working on a few other things at the moment, including a short story for Black Library, a short post-apocalyptic novel and a contemporary crime novel set in Sydney. Watch this space for more news!
Justice of Kings TV & Film option
This is still slowly plodding ahead. The latest news was that 2 writers were attached to the project and hopefully we will start to see some treatments / art / pitches coming in the first quarter of 2023. Whatever ultimately happens with the project I think this stuff will be really cool to see!
Art
I recently had a piece of art commissioned for the Tyranny of Faith - just for fun, because I like to put my money into the pockets of real life human artists. Those of you reading advance copies of TTOF will know what this eldritch horror is; for everyone else, that delight awaits in February:
The artist's Twitter account is here: https://twitter.com/moarf13
Richard Swan's Book of the Year Award 2023
I read a lot (well, not a lot, not these days) of books this year and I enjoyed almost all them. But there were two absolute head-and-shoulders-above-the-rest standouts for me and I cannot differentiate between the two by preference. The first is between two fires by Christopher Buehlman, and the second is 36 Streets by TR Napper. Both exquisitely good reads, both exam pass of their respective genres. I urge you to pick up a copy of each. You can see my good read reviews for them here and here.
Upcoming appearances
I will be attending TBR Con as a panellist on 25 Jan 2023
I am hoping to attend a convention in the USA next year pending on guest status (watch this space)
I will be attending WorldCon Glasgow in distant 2024.
Finally, a huge thank you to everyone who bought The Justice of Kings, or who has pre-ordered Tyranny of Faith, and to all the booktubers and bloggers and reviewers and fans who have made this year so wonderfully special for me. You guys make all of this possible so many thanks indeed for that.
Very best
Rich