End of Year Wrap Up

Hey folks.

That’s it. Another year gone by! Slightly less crazy than the last two, but no less busy.

The Common Saga:

2022 was the first year for me not to have a novel published, since Stormblood debuted back in 2020. Blindspace was published on one of the last days of 2021, and due to all the delays with distribution and shipping it (sort of) is a 2022 release.

Blindspace released to solid praise, and the responses from readers have almost unanimously agreed it’s a superior book to Stormblood. It’s much more of a space opera, more diverse in set-piece and world-building, more focused on the whole cast of characters rather than just one. I’m still immensely pleased with it. It only released in the US a few weeks ago, so it’s still picking up readers.

But, for some reason, it’s had very, very few reviews and ratings on Goodreads/Amazon. So, please drop a little review, even if it’s just a sentence, that would be very appreciated. Books, unfortunately, depend on word of mouth (and algorithms, it seems, these days) for success, so every review helps.

Stormblood: https://www.amazon.com/Stormblood-Jeremy-Szal/dp/1473227437/

Blindspace: https://www.amazon.com/Blindspace-Jeremy-Szal/dp/1473227488/

And on that note, ordering books in for libraries are a fantastic way to support authors without actually spending any money. And in some countries, we even get paid everytime someone borrows our books. You don’t want me to starve, right?

Goldsboro:

The good folks over at Goldsboro books have informed me that there’s still some of the signed hardback, sprayed edges edition of Blindspace left available. There’s only 250 of them in existence, and once they’re gone, they’re gone forever.

You know you want it:

https://www.goldsborobooks.com/product/blindspace

Wolfskin:

I spent the majority of 2022 focused on nailing down a draft of Wolfskin. It’s a rambling, bloated, monster of a draft, with a dozen missing scenes and a dozen other scenes that need to be gutted/rewritten/reworked, but it exists, and I’m very happy in the big picture.

I’m honestly not optimistic on a 2023 release date, as early 2024 seems more likely, but that’s all up in the air at the moment. My agent is having a look at the (very very) early draft over the holidays, so we’ll see what his thoughts are in January.

But I can promise you: I’ll be putting out all the stops to make sure Vakov’s last (?) adventure is as bad-ass, brutal, emotional, satisfying, intense, and insane as I can possibly make it.

Short Fiction/Anthologies

I only had two short stories published in 2022. The first is Mindstrings, published in the anthology Night, Rain, and Neon.

The second is The Black Horse, published in Grimdark Magazine’s stellar anthology The King Must Fall. The anthology has an insane line up of talented authors, and I’m stoked to be amoung them. My novelette is the longest short story I’ve ever written, and is also the first fantasy story I’ve written in almost five years. It also may be my personal favourite of all the short stories I’ve written.

Give the anthology a crack when it releases to the public in a few weeks.

Link:
https://www.grimdarkmagazine.com/announcement-the-king-must-fall-dark-fantasy-anthology-kickstarter/

Self-publishing
I dived into the world of self-publishing by releasing Scream in Blue, a novelette set in the world of the Common. It was mainly meant for newsletter subscribers, but it’s been picking up a few sales on Amazon, too.

I’ll be self-publishing more of my work in the future (including, perhaps, a few of my trunk novels, if I have the time).

Scream in Blue link:

https://www.amazon.com/Scream-Blue-Jeremy-Szal-ebook/dp/B0BM6LFFLK

Conventions:

I attended Supanova Gold Coast and Melbourne in early 2022, which were both new conventions for me. I had a blast at both, and got the chance to meet readers and fans who were actually excited to meet me, which was a great experience (albeit a little intimidating).

I also got to hang out with a few of the actors and writers and artists there, including the wonderful Georgina Haig (who you may know as Elsa from Once Upon a Time, and other shows like Limitless, Archive 81, etc). She ended up grabbing both my books (signed to her, of course), which wasn’t nerve-wracking at all.

And then there’s this crazy photo we all did. We’re not usually allowed to share these, but this time we were. You’ll spot folks from *deep breath* The Book of Boba Fett/Once Were Warriors, Lost/Once Upon A Time, The Lord of the Rings, Spartacus/The Vampire Diaries, Wolf Creek, Mortal Kombat, Power Rangers: Ninja Storm, The Amazing Spider-Man/The Sound of Music/Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood.

Upcoming Appearances

I hope to be attending a Supanova convention sometime in 2023, down here in Australia.
I hope to attend a major convention, either in the UK or the US, sometime in 2023.
I may be attending WorldCon China in 2023.
I will be attending WorldCon Glasgow in 2024

Finally, I wanted to say thanks to everyone who bought Stormblood and Blindspace, and all the bloggers, book-Tubers, readers, fans, booksellers, and fellow writers, who make it possible for me to continue to do this. Since I was a kid, I’ve wanted to be a published writer and to have my books read by folks around the world. That’s now possible because of your support and help and I couldn’t be more grateful. Thank you so much for letting me do this crazy little thing, and for reading about the wild adventures of Vakov as he charges through his savage little world.

Have a safe holiday!

Best,
Jeremy Szal

December 19, 2022 0

Publishing a free short story!

Surprise cover reveal! In early November, I’m publishing my novelette “Scream in Blue”, set in the world of The Common. It’s a standalone story, set on Earth, following a different cast of characters from my books.

I’ll be popping it up on Amazon as an eBook, but anyone who subscribes to my newsletter gets it for free. And we all like free stuff, right?

You can subscribe to my newsletter here.

And credit for this awesome cover goes to Mike Shackle, who blew my expectations out of the water!

October 27, 2022 0

Blindspace Publishes in Paperback!

Yesterday, Blindspace, Book 2 in the Common series, was published in paperback format! This is the mass-market paperback version – the leaner, smaller, cheaper version of the book that’s more readily accessible for bookstores and readers alike. It should already be on the shelves in the UK/Ireland, and will be releasing in a few days time in Australia/New Zealand, with Canada to follow shortly.

The Broken Binding will have signed editions, with each page being lovingly defaced with my bespoke handcrafted signature. Alternatively, you can get the book straight from Gollancz’s website, with all the purchasing options available. I can also sign and personalize copies of Blindspace (and Stormblood) through my wonderful local indie SFF bookseller, Galaxy Bookshop.

If you good good people actually *have* purchased the book already, leaving a review on Amazon and Goodreads and Audible or on your channel/blog page, etc, would be extremely helpful. Algorithms are spiteful, fickle bastards, but feeding a healthy amount of reviews through their greedy maws is hugely beneficial for us authors, as well as readers and publishers.

Failing that, asking your local library to stock my books is also extremely helpful. It allows people who might be financially unable to get a hold of reading material, and is a way to give back to libraries.

I do have some news about Book 3, aka, WOLFSKIN, including tentative chapter titles and some details about where the story is heading, and what it’s shaping up to be. For now, I’m keeping those details exclusively for newsletter subscribers. So if you want the juicy details, you can sign up here.

July 22, 2022 0

BLINDSPACE Hardback Available at Goldsboro

At last, it can be announced! The fabulous Goldsboro books are doing a special, limited hardback run of BLINDSPACE, just as they did with STORMBLOOD, with fabulous dark-purple sprayed edges. They’re all accompanied by my hand-crafted, vintage, bespoke signature, with some witty turns of phrase included for good measure. I do it for you, dear readers! I do it for you!

There’s only going to be 250 copies available (one of which is MINE), so if you’re looking for a hardback edition I do suggest you grab one quickly. . .

You can go ahead and buy it on the Goldsboro website, here .

December 9, 2021 0

Something VERY, VERY big coming to StarShipSofa

So, me and Tony have been teasing this one out over the last couple of weeks. Something MASSIVE will be docking at the StarShipSofa. What, may you ask? That, I cannot say. However, I can tell you that it includes one of the biggest and coolest authors of modern SF/F today. It was bloody hard even reaching out to them, and negotiating was akin to walking on a tightrope made out of dental floss.

But I managed to secure a story from them, and I’m over the moon, man. And so is Tony, believe me. And our narrator, Nick Camm did a cracking job of the story. He always does, but he put everything he had into it.

And I can also tell you that getting the green light was only half the deal. Getting hold of the story was another matter entirely. It was extremely unconventional, and all four of us, (that being me, Tony, Nick and the author in question) had to work hard to get it done. But now it’s complete and I’m super stoked to hear the response.

Come on, tell us, I can hear you whining. Nope. Sorry, no go. Approximately only five or six people are aware of what’s coming, and we plan to keep it that way. Yes, it really is that big. I can guarantee with my life that you know this author and the work that they’ve done. But my lips are sealed.

Look out for it on Wednesday! June 3rd will be the day!

Until then…..

Jeremy

May 29, 2015 0

New Anthologies and artwork

So, it’s been a busy few weeks for me. With university trying to drive me mad (only a few weeks left thankfully) and meeting writing deadlines, I haven’t had much chance to enjoy my completed work. I did go to the EB Expo herein Sydney on Saturday (and that was great) but otherwise I haven’t had many chances to sit back and see the fruits of my labour. Until now.

I was browsing the iTunes page of The New Accelerator. I have a reprint in their second issue. Anyway, I saw this:

Marvelous.

Honestly, I was just stunned by how good it was. I’ve seen some pretty horrendous artwork. The sort that makes you realize that we as humans have already lost. And people pay a lot of money for it. Your book will be judged by your cover, and so I was thrilled to be getting something this awesome. And they were paying me to be in the anthology! Honestly, I’d have paid for artwork like this.

There’s the proper file (without my name) here:

Amd And I adore the planets and moon in the background, as well as the climbable trees and cluster of domes. I won’t lie when I say that I had a very different image in my mind when I wrote the story, but this is damned good and I’m loving it. When people read your work carefully enough so that they adsorb the details (like the trees and opaque domes) you know you’re onto a great thing.

The actual issue isn’t available yet, but you can subscribe to them through the iStore and read it on any iOs device here.

And the cover art for the Issues themselves are incredible (note this is just a trial issue, hence the lack of many names).

But that’s not all.

I sent a story to Bards and Sages Quarterly back in January. I didn’t expect to get accepted. They’re a print magazine after all. But I did, and this is the cover art:

I’ll admit, it’s not groundbreaking, but again, I didn’t pay for it and I was surprised to get in, considering how big it is (they even have a Wikipedia page). It’ll be in print soon, but an e-copy is available right here in any format you like.

So, that’s it for now. I’m over the moon at the fantastic art for A Dome of Chrome, and I’m also looking forward to holding the print anthology of Bards and Sages in my hands.

October 5, 2014 0

Award winning story now available

You know that award that I won (an Honourable Mention, to be specific) from the Writers of the Future contest? Well, the story that won it is finally available. It was purchased by the good people over at On The Premises Magazine, in Issue #23. Do you want to read it? Oh, why am I asking; of course do you. And you can read it here.

Enjoy, and do inform me of your thoughts, good or bad. I’m hoping that the majority, if not all of them, will be positive. I’d love to be proven correct.

Also, the brilliant artwork you see at the top was provided by Ken Kirkpatrick and the fantastic folks over at Bloody Cake News.

July 14, 2014 0