James D. McEwan

I am now the proud father of a brand-new book. Hammer & Glass: Kalleron Book IV, is out on Amazon in multiple formats. First conceived as a very different story in 2016, this 130,000-word epic wrapped in a cover created by the most excellent Thai artist, Grandfailure, is the end of one journey and the start of another.
 

For the past six years I have rattled my digits upon my aging keyboard and produced one-million words of original content and multiple rewrites, and this book is the culmination of all that effort. In other measures, arithmetically, only 13% of what I have written in that time has made it to see the light of day. Ooft.

During that same period, I received over 200 rejections for various projects, including the literary progenitors of Hammer & Glass. The reason this book became a reality and not another archived folder on my desktop is because my reading group was highly supportive of this story. An agent expressed a fondness for it, without quite loving it enough to hold out as a beacon in the face of the mighty and dark publishing houses. Yet, it was clear to me; Chara’s story could not be lost in time as sands through the infinite hourglass. Somebody had to read about the orphaned girl with onyx skin and her statuesque and constantly grumbling guardian.

Now the hard work begins. My contracted job will soon end and the cycle of writing, publishing and marketing will switch into overdrive. This endeavour becomes my only source of income. It should be frightening but it is not. I have support, but more importantly, I have my dream. And being given the opportunity to pursue it means I can concentrate on becoming better at what I do.

In early 2023, M7RRORS, will be released. As distant from Hammer & Glass as could be conceived; it is a dysfunctional love story set in Glasgow, the protagonist of which is a mental health patient whose spiralling delusional psychosis sets the scene for a sympathetic but darkly comical voyage into the broken mind. M7RRORS will have its own blog post very soon. I’m not quite certain how to shoe-horn this into the ‘Kalleron’ themed website but it’ll be there, sticking out as a sore thumb—just how Frank would like it. Oh, you’ll meet Frank soon.

Also in 2023, I begin the arduous task of rewriting Kalleron books I & II. The first two stories were submitted to agents as one book with a word count of 186,000. You might be surprised to learn agents often refuse any submission over 120,000 words. Imagine, no War & Peace… As I am my own publishing house, I don’t need to heed such arbitrary limits. I’ve set myself an ambitious writing target and aim to release book one by April. Book two will be out in time for Christmas 2023, if not earlier. The final instalment in the initial trilogy will come out in 2024. After that, we’ll continue Chara’s adventure with Goddard and company.

So, that’s where I am now. If you think what I’m doing is worthwhile (perhaps stupid, perhaps brave?) please share my posts and link my site. And maybe buy a copy of Hammer & Glass. If it meets your expectations, please leave a review on Amazon. I might even quote you on the site—we can both be mildly famous.

Thanks for dropping by. Don’t stop dreaming.