Salutations my good and patient readers.
First of all, I understand that I have been quiet recently. The website and social media have really been inactive and my projects have seemingly been on hold.
I assure you that I have been quietly working away at all of my big projects I have planned for the next year or so, I am just sorry that it's taken me this long to get organized. I will explain properly later in this post.
First of all though, today marks the TWO YEAR anniversary of Dead Night being launched. I don't know where the time goes! I'm so, so lucky and extremely grateful to everyone who has supported me and my work over the last two years. Every review, every comment, every time someone even picks up a copy of the book, it puts a big smile on my face. I'm so glad that people enjoy Dead Night, these characters, this world, all are very close to my heart and it means a great deal to know that someone else out there wants to get to know them too.
So, in time for this milestone, I have decided to release something I have had in the works for some time, and this is where the explaining comes in.
This Sunday, the 18th December 2016, 'The Night Speaks' will hit Amazon (just a couple of days before the people of the Night celebrate Midwinter, as it happens!)
This project is a collection of short stories featuring the Assassin's Guild. The stories are diverse, ranging from a rescue mission for a certain extremely important person, to a snatch of some of the character's histories, to something completely cryptic that gives a hint to a *certain* future novel in the series. Not only are there 15* new (and edited) shorts, some of them written by myself, and a handful by the very talented Mr Foster (my better half and DN's editor-he also designs my wonderful book covers), but also a small collection of character illustrations. I can't wait to share this new material with you!
We have had so much fun with this project, and that's in large part why it's late. If you remember, we announced it around a year ago, but a lot has happened since then. Without going into too much detail,Adam has been busy working hard at university in his final year, and I have been working to try and get to university myself (Writing doesn't pay too well, as it turns out). However, where we initially only intended this anthology to be a short one, we just kept having ideas for new stories and new parts of the world to explore that the project just grew. It is now a beast of a book, but we are both really happy with it, and we hope you will all enjoy it too. I'm sorry it has taken this long to make it happen, but I like to think the extra time has allowed us to make this anthology into something special. I truly hope that it will be worth the wait.
As for the technicalities, 'The Night Speaks' was originally intended to be free, but Amazon won't allow me to make it so. Instead, the book will be minimum price (which I believe is 99p, but it certainly will not be much), and I have decided to collect any profit from the sales of this one and put it in a jar- once it reaches £20, I donate the money to a charity and start again, so the unexpected payment will at least be for a good cause.At the moment, this book is an ebook only exclusive, however if I feel that there is enough interest, I may have some special paperbacks printed just for events (which I am hoping to do more often this year).
As a last note, I should point out that some stories within 'The Night Speaks' are written with the new version of Dead Night in mind (more on that in 2017!), so you will be getting to know some new characters. I am particularly excited to unveil Theodore VanKastle, ex-Assassin and president of London's prestigious 'Pompous Moustache Association'. He isn't around any more in the Dead Night timeline, but I hope you enjoy his antics here.
Also, a firm pat on the back to anyone who thinks they know what 'Toujour Dans Mon Coer' is all about!
Anyway, I have rambled on enough, apologies for the long post, I just had a lot of things to explain due to the delay. I will leave you with Adam's amazing cover design for the book!
I hope you all enjoy the new release, don't be afraid to let me know what you think!
Yours valliantly chained to a keyboard and wired on Earl Grey,
I. I. Laverick
*I think this is how many stories we have now, I have actually lost count!
