Things always get a little weird at publishing time. When I finally submit a book to the powers that be it becomes locked for three days prior to publishing (assuming that it's on pre-order, which most of my books have been). It's three days where I start to wonder if I've loaded the right file. Did I actually load a dummy version of the book and I'm about to sell a blank version to a lot of pissed off people? Is there some glaring mistake on the first page that I can't do anything about until the book is published?

Then launch days comes along and I'm checking to see how everything went, shout to the skies that the new book is out, send a bunch of emails, Facebook posts, write my tri-annual blog, do what I can to distract myself, and then wonder if anyone will actually like the book (aside from me, but I'm biased).

Anyway: Cold Blooded – Raike 3, is out now. What's it about? Raike (a mercenary in a sword and sorcery universe) and Alysia Kasera (Raike's boss' daughter) are on a secret mission to topple a foreign king and break the alliance he has with a vampire clan. Why? Because vampires are assholes and this alliance is probably going to direct the blood suckers to kill as many of Alysia's people as they can. Along for the ride are a few dozen of General Kasera's best soldiers, who are fully aware that their actions here are not going to be sanctioned and the only way this goes well for them is if Alysia is able to convince the king's rival to stage a coup and take the throne for himself. What happens? Things go wrong. What happens after that? It becomes an epic fight for survival, trapped in a foreign land with enemies gathering on all sides, desperate to work out who betrayed them and who among their former enemies they can still trust.

Get your copy here.


So, what's next for me? I'm going on holiday! Seriously, I have not had a holiday in years. I'll be in England, Switzerland, and hopefully Iceland if I get around to booking that leg in time. I expect to have some downtime but the truth is I began writing Raike 4 a couple of weeks ago in the hope that I would have it finished (but not published) before flying out, but that ain't gonna happen. So I'll probably be tinkering with the story and spending more hours staring into a screen than seeing the rolling hills of Yorkshire or the geysers of Iceland. My best guess for publishing Raike 4 is August, but let's be honest here: I have never made a deadline. Books get longer, life gets busy, and there's always a hundred things to do on any given day.

Anyway, happy reading!

For some of you the book is less than 24 hours away. For others it's a little more. Either way, Cold Blooded – the third Raike book – is on its way!

Things might've gone well … if they weren't ambushed on their first night.

When an unsanctioned mission to depose a tyrant king goes catastrophically wrong, Raike finds himself having to use every trick he knows to get the people he was hired to protect back home before it's too late.

Get it here!