Wolfskin: pre-orders are open!

Website:

So. After about three thousand years, the Wolfskin finally has an official release date:

March 3, 2026.

And yes, it is available for pre-order.

(The copy description has massive spoilers in it, so unless you’ve finished Blindspace, I do not recommend reading it!)

I do not exaggerate when I say that Wolfskin is the best thing I’ve ever written. The character arcs, the storylines, the set-pieces, even the prose, just works. Never before have I written something so epic, so brutal, so heart-wrenching. It is, in my humble and totally unbiased opinion, a damn good book.

Yes, it’s taken a long time to come out. But that’s given me the time to make sure that what I’ve put down is my absolute best, and my exact vision for the story. Again, it is my best book.

However, because of various reasons, including things that are totally beyond my control, my career is not the best place at the moment. Wolfskin is still coming out, but after that? I don’t know. Things are unclear. I’ve suffered a lot of sleepless nights because of it, and there have been days where I’ve contemplated giving up this gig for good.

I’m not giving up. But that also means that I cannot afford to hold back, either.

So. I am going to ask you all to please pre-order Wolfskin.

Pre-orders are disproportionately helpful for authors. It helps the book trade to gauge the interest on a book, or a series. The more pre-orders there are, the more copies get printed. The more copies get printed, the more the publisher has to work to sell said copies, and the greater likelihood of those copies selling.

I kinda hate that I have to weigh all these things up instead of, you know, writing. But that’s the business we’re in.

So, any and all pre-orders and support is much, much appreciated.

Here’s a link to Wolfskin’s Books2Read page, where you can select the retailer of your choice.

Alternatively, you can also pre-order from Galaxy Bookshop, my local bookstore, and I can happily sign and personalise any copies ordered from there.

If you cannot pre-order it, then there’s a lot of other things you can do for Wolfskin and for the Common series. You can buy them. Ask your local library to purchase them. Tell others about them. Review them on Amazon and Goodreads. Sacrifice goats on an altar of black stone in their name.

Not sure about the last one, but you can always give it a go.

If you are a reviewer with a blog/review channel/BookTube/Instagram account, please get in touch with me and I’ll get my publisher to send out a review copy to you.

It’s been a hell of a long journey, for me and Vakov both. But we’re nearly at the end of his story. I hope that you’ll all stand by my side and see it through to the end.

November 3, 2025 0

Broken Stars has landed!

The day has come. BROKEN STARS, my debut short story collection and my first real self-publishing endeavour is now live in the wild!

In this collection. you’ll find bounty hunters and warriors, killers and kings. Good people doing the wrong thing for the right reasons, and bad people who desperately want to be better. Human monsters and monsters with humanity.

16 reprinted stories, 2 originals, all in one collection for the first time. I’m immensely happy to have it out in the world, especially as I haven’t had a release in a few years.

If you’re interested in it (and since you’re subscribed to my newsletter I assume that you are!), here are the appropriate links to. If you do want a print copy, you can either grab it off Amazon, or you can buy it directly from my website OR you can buy it from my local SFF bookstore. These last two options will mean that I’ll get to sign in for you, and I know some of you like that.

More importantly, algorithms work in a book’s favour on it’s release, especially if it’s being purchased. In other words, if you are going to pick it up, now is the time to do so. (I hate saying this, but artists have to eat!)

Links:

To buy from me directly

Amazon

Galaxy Bookshop

Goodreads

And now . . . photos! Look how cool they are!

This book is somewhat of an experiment, but I do see myself becoming more of a hybrid author in the future, especially if the collection does well.

I know that some of you are already reading and enjoying it, which is always great to know. Thank you very much for your continued support, and I hope you continue to enjoy the savage little worlds within.

Best,
Jeremy

November 1, 2024 0

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

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