It’s been a while since I punched one of these out. My excuse being that I’ve been working flat out to deliver copyedits for Blindspace, Book #2 in the Common series. Strange to think that a three-year project (I outlined the book back in August 2018) has almost wrapped up. I won’t lie; writing this book is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I hated almost everything about writing it past the first act, with the whole of 2019 basically crippled with indecision about where I wanted the book to go.
So it wasn’t until I finished the first draft in early 2020 when I sat down and took a good, hard look at the second instalment in my trilogy and what adjustments I would have to make. And I made a lot. It’s fair to say the true book came about in the editing. Whole character arcs were rewritten, characters were added and others killed off, entire scenes gutted out and replaced, set pieces restructured, with some major shifts in tone and overall plot that’ll radically alter how the story continues from here.
It sounds like a lot of work. And it was. But I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it very much. The process has taught me a lot about my own approach to storytelling and I’ll be applying what I’ve learned for the rest of my writing career. Or so one hopes.
The end result is a massive, character-driven space opera that’s epic in scope but very tightly focused on the main assemble cast. It’s far more space opera than the first book, with a much greater emphasis on character relationships. It’s a much better reflection of “me” as a creator than the first book and I couldn’t be happier with how it’s turned out. It goes to some very dark places, but with some emotionally brutal, heart-wrenching moments I truly wasn’t sure if I could pull off. There’s several new cast members that join Vakov’s party – two of which are aliens. I’ll leave you to discover them all for yourself. The book’s also a whopping 188,000 words (33,000 words longer than the first, but by no means unusual for “epic” SFF fiction these days, at least in the UK), so there’s plenty of meat to sink your teeth into.
BLINDSPACE will be dropping on November 11 in all formats in the UK/Australia/New Zealand/Europe and some time in January in the US/Canada. And it’s already up for pre-order! (Did I say that pre-orders are a huge help? Pre-orders are a huge help). The Man Of a Thousand Voices – Colin Mace – will be returning to do the audio book.
I’m thrilled to very soon have this book out and I do hope you all love it!
JEREMY SZAL 
Super excited to get my hands on this when it comes out! And more words than Stormblood just means more time immersed in the world haha 🙂 Any idea on whether Goldsboro books might pick it up for a special edition like they did with Stormblood?
Thanks!
And yes, they’ll be picking it up. I’ll be posting when it goes live, but make sure you subscribe to their newsletter so you get the option to buy it early when it first becomes available.
Awesome, thanks! Can’t wait!
And I’m sure you’ll LOVE the colour of the sprayed edges, too…
Ahhh even more exciting! I’ll be watching for Goldsboro’s announcement religiously now haha