Russell KirkPatrick.com

I'm a few lines from the end of Beyond the Wall of Time, the final book in the Husk/Broken Man trilogy, and definitely the final word on the world of Faltha, Bhrudwo and Elamaq. I'm now finally certain how it's all going to turn out. I cried a little tonight, but there was an undercurrent of happiness and satisfaction there too.

Sound silly? Consider what it's like to live with a character for quarter of a century. That's how long Stella, for example, has been in my head. I've known her as long as I've known my own wife, and tomorrow will be the last time I ever talk to her. I don't go back and read my books after they're published, so tomorrow is it.

I'm also saying goodbye to the world I've played in for such a long time. I won't return. I want to develop a broader canvas, one where the rules are different, where things are a little more ambiguous and a lot more complex. While I'm looking forward to the new challenge, I'm sad to be leaving Faltha.

Well, the Epilogue gets written tomorrow, then that post-novel bittersweet feeling will set in. Never fails. I'll have to console myself by playing lots of golf. Sigh.

'Beyond the Wall of Time', the last in the series, should be released in the middle of next year in Australia and New Zealand, and perhaps a month or two later in the UK and the US. I hope you like it.

 

You Australians may laugh, but the Waikato (the province in which I live) is gripped by what some are describing as a hundred-year drought. (Not that the drought will last a hundred years, but such water scarcity occurs once in a hundred years. Just clearing that up.)

Yes, a hundred year drought. We've had no substantial rainfall for over three, er, months. Cue laughter from Australian friends. It doesn't take much to dry us out, not when we generally get a dependable and evenly spread rainfall.

Not this summer. We've had 6mm since October. And we've had the equivalent of three week's worth of temperatures higher than any single day since I came to the Waikato. Over (gasp) 30 degrees. I can hear the mocking laughter from across the Tassie.

Our grass has turned brown, we're not allowed to burn, and now we're not even allowed to sprinkle. We are hot and grumpy. We suffer from lassitude. We find it difficult to update our blogs, and all we talk about is the weather.

Dull, eh?

Oh yes, my 5th book, 'Dark Heart', is now available in Australia. Should be in NZ by the end of the month. My first trilogy has been launched in the USA and is coming out at monthly intervals. And my books are selling well and being reprinted. Huzzah!

Ooh, I shouldn't have jumped up. It's made me all hot. 

I see Path of Revenge is #6 on Dymock's Australian SFF bestseller list this week.

That's good news. My first novel made it to #1 on its first week of release and stayed there for four weeks; subsequent novels in the Fire of Heaven trilogy did nearly as well.

This series has started slower. It's not receiving the huge publisher push the first series did, nor should it. I want the book to stand on its own merits. And now, three months after release, it appears on the bestseller list. I interpret that to mean word-of-mouth is working in its favour.

What do sales mean, anyway? It's not the money. (Well, it's not all the money.) A lot of it is about knowing that people are reading your story. That's what I want most of all. Though if you want to buy it just to look cool, that's fine by me...

I've got a sore froat. I hate sore froats. Sore froats are no good for lecturers. I need sympathy.

 

I made the front page of the WAIKATO TIMES with my window novel-writing stunt.

 

 

 Thanks to Linda and the staff at Pennys for a successful promotion.