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.
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.
2024 wasn’t the worst of years. Nor was it the best of years.
As many of you know, in late 2023 I impaled myself with a nailgun in my left hand, missing the bone by less than a millimeter. If it had connected, I’d have shattered the digit. It did not connect.
But that didn’t mean I got away scot free. Oh, no. The incident gave me complex pain regional syndrome, nerve damage and ulnar nerve damage, which led to a slew of pain management therapies, new medications, weekly doctor visits, constant appointments, required exercises, and dealing with the red tape of it all, which triggered further mental health issues and gave rise to other health issues that were simmering away beneath the surface.
I don’t like to talk about this much, because I live it every week, and I really don’t want to be one of those Professional Pain Sufferers, as my GP calls them, who can only talk about their own agonies. But it’s safe to say that 2024 was a very stop-start year for me, and no one wants to spend the last year of their 20s dealing with a critical hand injury, not knowing how much longer it’ll continue on for.
I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’ve been going through some rough patches, mentally, due to the stresses of publishing, and how the writing has suffered as a consequence. As you can imagine, the injury has not helped. I wasn’t able to publish Wolfskin in 2024 like I wanted, and so sometimes it’s felt like publishing has been moving on without me, like I’ve fallen overboard on a ship and I’m stuck floating in the water, watching the ship move further away from me, leaving me behind until it’s an inscrutable speck on the horizon.
To watch authors who debuted after you get proofs and cover art and special edition deals for their next series while you’re still stuck on the one feels extremely disheartening, especially when compounded with a whirlwind of other doubts and stresses (is anyone even reading my stuff? Does anyone care? What’s the point of this?). Doubly so when all of your peers keep talking about how much fun writing is and how another day at the keyboard is another day doing the best job ever, and you feel like setting your computer and your face on fire. There’s been times when I’ve seriously considered leaving publishing for good, unable to take the anxiety and pressure (and anger) that stems from the meatgrinder of the publishing industry and how it feels like it poisons the passion you have for your creative work.
This isn’t a “woe is me” post. But I do believe in honesty, both on a professional and personal level, and this is the narrative I’m telling.
But I won’t be quitting of course. Because I’m a writer. And this is what I do. And there isn’t a single person on earth or heaven that’ll stop me. (Where do you think Vakov gets his stubborn streak from?)
While those feelings have not always disappeared, 2024 has seen them become far less intense and overwhelming, especially towards the latter months. Things have been better. Much better. Sometimes, all you need to do is to take a step back, stay in the shade, reframe your thinking, and then step forward again. Attitude and positivity matters. A lot. Fighting off the Raging Demon Voices isn’t always easy, but the less space I give them, the smaller they get.
And because of all that, I’ve had a very, very productive year. Which brings us to….
Publishing
The only project I published in 2024 was independently publishing Broken Stars in Nov 2024. All these stories were previously published except two, but I still consider the entire collection to be an original publication. It’s picked up some really solid reviews, and has been stocked in a few local bookstores and libraries, which always makes me happy.
Interestingly, releasing a new book means that your previous titles get a fresh wave of attention. I’ve had a few people say that they wanted to check out my traditionally published books because of Broken Stars being released. I mainly put Broken Stars out so I could keep my name in the spotlight between major releases, and to dust off some of my older works and give them a bit of new life, so I’m pleased to see that it’s all going to plan.
The majority of my year has seen me work on a new project. I don’t want to say too much about it, only that it’s science-fantasy and is set some 20,000 years in the future. It’s somewhat similar to my other books, but it’s also . . . not. It’s more epic. More poetic, grandiose. But fear not, it’s still very much me, and I’m hoping that it’ll be the next thing that I publish. I’ve got about 140,000 words down, not including material that I’ve already cut or reworked. I hoped to have it finished, by the end of this year, but Wolfskin edits have derailed those plans.
And because I don’t have enough on my plate, I’m working on another project. A secondary world fantasy with a female protagonist and some very nonhuman characters, on an epic quest. I won’t say more than that.
As for Wolfskin, I’m doing another pass on it as we speak, with the goal of delivering it to my editor in January. It’s been interesting to see how I’ve evolved as a writer since I discovered this character and his voice all the way back in 2026, when I was only 22 years old. It’s been tempting to sometimes rewrite the odd paragraph or sentence to the way I would have written them now, but I’m making sure to hold true to my former self and to Vakov by keeping the voice consistent.
On this read, my goal is to fall in love with the book, to read it as a cohesive whole narrative. And so far, I’ve been really, really enjoying it. If you’ll allow me to flex a little bit: the narrative beats are working, the character dynamics are solid, the emotional moments feel earned and hit like a sledgehammer, and the action scenes crackle off the page. Why, it’s like someone wrote a book just for me!
Sure, it’s my own damn book I’m banging on about. But after being stuck in a cycle of disliking my own work, seeing the worst of it in the worst light, I’d rather build up what I know to be my novel’s strengths. It’s my baby, after all. And what a damn fine baby it’s turning out to be!
Travelling:
I went overseas three times this year. I went to Japan twice, a place that is easily my favourite in the world, and I have plans to go again sometime next year.
I also went to Europe for Glasgow Worldcon, which was a fantastic and inspiring event. It was my first time in Europe with my books published, and I was able to do a lot of signings and events, and meet a lot of readers, including one reader who brought his copy of Stormblood all the way from Brazil for me to sign.
People are best part of any Worldcon and I was really fortunate enough to hang out with a bunch of friends I haven’t seen in years, people that I’ve only met online and completely new writers. It really felt like I was part of the publishing community, a professional author who was respected by his peers and that is always lovely feeling because this gig involves a lot of time spent locked away in a small room, hunched over a keyboard, and it’s only when someone tells you in person how much they loved your book, does it actually feel real. I also got to see copies of my book in bookstores in both Scotland and Denmark, which was incredibly cool.
I don’t know when my next Worldcon will be. But I will certainly be endeavouring to attend one, or at least another major publishing convention, in the near future.
Reading:
The amount of books I read went down considerably in 2024. Both on account of the injury and the fact that I was learning Japanese. Spoiler alert, it’s an incredibly crushingly difficult language to learn. Relative to English, the grammar and sentence structures are both backwards and let’s not even get started on the polite versus impolite forms, or three different alphabets (I loathe Kanji with the fury of a thousand suns). But being able to speak Japanese is also incredibly rewarding, especially when you go to Japan and you’re actually able to communicate with people and order food in a restaurant and understand a good percentage of what you hear. I am by no means fluent, but I’m slowly getting there. Hopefully.
But the books that I did read this year I really enjoyed. Here’s the best of them:
The Will of the Many, by James Islington
The Devils by Joe Abercrombie
Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff
Demon in White by Christopher Ruocchio
Shards of Earth, by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
My goals is to read more in 2025. The size of my TBR is threatening to crush me, so I’m hoping to put a solid dent in it.
***
I want to close off my last post of the year by saying: thank you, dear reader.
For reading my books, for supporting me, and for letting me tell these wild, crazy stories. This is not an easy job, and there have been some very, very rough patches along the way. But I’m on the upswing and I do aim to be doing a lot of writing in the upcoming year and to be putting many, many books on the shelves in the coming few years.
Like many people in publishing, early August will see me attending WorldCon in Glasgow, Scotland. It’ll be my first event in Europe ever with books out, so I’m really looking forward to that. I’ve had a lot of readers tell me how stoked they are to meet me and buy me an alcoholic beverage, so let me make it clear that I am very partial to people who buy me alcohol.
I’ll be on some panels, and I expect to have a signing and possibly a kaffeeklatsch at some point. If anyone sees me, feel free to stop and say hello. I’m also happy to sign anything (in and or outside of an official signing) that’s not a contract.
What else has been happening? Not so much. I’m still waiting for my editor to come back to me with edits for Wolfskin. But there ain’t no rest for the wicked, so I’ve been plugging away at a new book. I won’t reveal much about it, but I will say that I’m calling it the Rage book, and that I’ve just hit the 100k mark. I’m really enjoying how the project is shaping up, and I’ll be very excited for it to go on submission (hopefully by next year).
I’ll also say that my agent read the first act (roughly 40,000 words) and he had exceptionally good things to say about it. And say one thing for John Jarrold, no one has ever excused him of not shooting straight. So if it says it’s good, he does really mean it.
Otherwise, I’ve been reading the new Joe Abercrombie book: the Devils. Our mutual publisher sent me the book so I might blurb it. Here’s what I had to say:
Visceral and vivid, The Devils by Joe Abercrombie is exceptionally good. Every page is laced with an edge, an energy, packed with sharp wit and banter. If competing works of fantasy literature are a forest, Abercrombie is a damn flamethrower.
After nearly three years, Wolfskin, Book 3 in the Common Saga, has been delivered to my editor, Gillian Redfearn, at Gollancz!
It feels like an end of an era, in a way. I discovered the brooding, dark hero of Vakov Fukasawa back in December 2016, when I was just 22 years old. I’m nearly 29 now, and I’ve walked with him for three books as we’ve gone on this wild journey together. Now, I’ve told the (final?) chapter in his story, and I’m immensely proud of it.
Has the road been easy? No. It’s been rough. I was going through a lot during the drafting of Book 3. A lot. There were days when I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue writing. But I’m in a much better place now.
The book needed to go in a different direction from what I originally envisioned, and I’m very glad that I’ve taken the extra time to get it nailed down the way I want it. I’m *extremely* happy with how Vakov’s story has shaped up, and I do genuinely feel that this is not only the best book in the series, and my favourite, but that it will have the best reception of the trilogy. Those three things can sometimes fall into different sections of a Venn diagram, but in this case, it’s a circle.
But time will tell.
So, I hear you ask: when do I get to read it????
I don’t get to make that decision. It’s currently on my editor’s desk, and I can do nothing until she edits it and sends it back to me. I will have to go through those structural edits, discuss things with my editor, make my own changes, and then send it back to her. Then she’ll edit the book again, this time for line-edits. And then I’ll go through it again. And then there’s copyedits, proofs, etc.
So don’t expect to get your hands on it for a little while. No one is more eager for this book to come out than I am. But it has to come out at the right time, when it is ready, and not before.
But delivery is the biggest and most important step, and that’s been taken. I’ll be sure to announce it when a release date slides into view.
Till then, I’ll be going on a month-long holiday (I’ve earned it!)
I’ve also given a lot of thought to what I’m going to write next. And I know exactly what my next project is will. I aim to get that written sooner rather than later.
Finally, thank you so much for your trust and patience, dear readers. I greatly appreciate it, and I’m determined to end this trilogy with a bang.
Before I go, I’ll leave ya with the opening line of Wolfskin:
“Most people have to die before they get sent to hell. I had not been given the privilege.”
So! BLINDSPACE is just $1.99 on eBook for today only! That’s 1 cent for every three pages. If you haven’t grabbed the book yet, now’s the perfect time, because the book has never been cheaper.
If you’re in the UK, it’s been discounted to 3.99 quid, which is still a damn good deal for a book that took me three years to write and edit.
Otherwise, the mass market paperback edition of Blindspace has dropped! So if you’ve got the paperback version of Stormblood and you’re wanting to make sure all the book sizes align on the shelf, you can now fulfill that one little desire.
I’m launching Blindspace in the US in late November, courtesy of the fabulous people of the Mysterious Galaxy bookstore.
Joining me to launch the book will be Richard Swan, the author of The Justice of Kings. Event page and details here.
Feel free to heckle us with awkward, tricky questions (although we’ll be free to ignore them or provide ridiculous answers.)
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.
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.
JEREMY SZAL 