I got my edits on book 3 of The Last War trilogy back from Gollancz this week. My editor opened his email with "Boy oh boy! Does this one pack a punch. Brutal and epic from start to finish — I loved it. (This must've been very stressful to write!)"
I can't tell you how relieved I was to read that. Often, the doubts can really get to you as a writer _ especially when you're caught up in your own world so much of the time. I spent two months while he was reading the book worrying that it was rubbish and I needed to drastically overhaul it. Obviously, I have things to look at but it's all minor character stuff, tweaking the emotions to really make things have impact when other things happens. Then it's off to copyedits in October and by the end of the it'll all be done. I've already started planning the next book. It's a new world, new characters. So lots to think about. It's going to be very different in many ways to WE ARE THE DEAD — not least because it's going to have a real hero from start to finish. And, of course, lots of swords and magic
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Book 3 of The Last War trilogy is with my editor. UNTIL THE LAST is a massive book — some 230,000 words or thereabouts, and was the hardest thing I've ever written. I'm blaming the pandemic for most of that and the way it upended life in every way but a lot also came from the complexities of the book and such a large cast of characters. We have (I think) 4 new point of view characters in this one too...
Also, A FOOL'S HOPE is out now in paperback where ever you buy your books. I'm super proud of this one and happy it's been so well received. I've started planning what's next. It's a new character and a new world so plenty of thinking needs to be done before the writing... and, of course, edits on book 3 will be back soon I've been doing quite a few video chats recently and this is a favourite. Stephen Aryan is a brilliant fantasy author ( he wrote the Battle Mage trilogy and his new book, The Coward, is out soon). This is the new home of everything to do with my books. I'll try to update it as often as I can (but sometimes I think I'm the only one who reads it!) I'm insanely busy at the moment, finishing off the Last War trilogy for Gollancz. The final book, UNTIL THE LAST, is out in April 2022. At the moment, I'm about two weeks away from finishing it and I think it will be about 220k words long. A lot of those will be cut during the editing phase though. It was also GollanczFest this weekend but, because of the pandemic, it was all virtual. I recorded a reading that turned out to be a lot harder than I thought it would be. It took me about 20 takes to get one perfect clip! Hopefully next time we can all be together in person! I also recently did an interview with Petrick of Petrick Reads on his youtube channel. That was a lot of fun. |
MIKE SHACKLE
Author of WE ARE THE DEAD and A FOOL'S HOPE Archives
October 2023
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