Alongside the writing of a book there are various other bits of work that have to be conducted. Building awareness of an upcoming novel doesn’t start the moment you finish writing it. If you’re smart, you plan that sort of stuff much earlier and get it going before the novel is even a ‘thing’.

Book readings are one such way to give folks a taste of what your book will be about and conventions are an obvious place to do this. There’s an audience of people who are already very much interested in the topic and are keen to hear about the latest news whether it’s game, book, film, or anything else.

Fantasticon is a case in point. This convention celebrates Fantasy and Science Fiction, and incorporates the gaming side of things. This year there are rumblings of some very special hologrammatic technology being debuted. It’s so secret I don’t know anything about it, other than that it is supposed to be very cool indeed!

I’ve done book readings before, some involving live acting! This year I have three books on the go – one being launched and two others in progress. Both of the latter are game tie-in novels, so I’m hoping to reach out to the fans of the game with what I’m doing.

It’s no secret that I’m working on the new Elite Dangerous novel. Due next summer, Premonition is already well underway. As this belongs to Frontier Developments rather than me, I’m not at liberty to just promote it any way I like as I did with Reclamation. Thus a reading has to be approved by them and any audio visual stuff to go alongside has to be vetted and approved. On the flipside, as the official Elite Dangerous book, it means I can, potentially, use official material once that has been agreed.

So, my little announcement? I’ve been working hard on this with Frontier and am delighted to be able to say that it was all approved this week. That means the first reading from Elite Dangerous: Premonition will take place at Fantasticon 2016, so convention attendees and those watching via streaming will get an exclusive preview of the new Elite Dangerous book. It will be backed up by audio visual material as you’ve come to expect from me. I’ll ensure it’s available offline after the event. I think you’re going to enjoy it!

While we’re on the subject of Elite Dangerous: Premonition… how is it going? Very well, thanks! I remain on target, though I haven’t pushed ahead of it as much as I would like. It’s a complex beast this time around and with many ‘live’ strands currently inflight it makes it much harder to write than anything I’ve attempted previously. The first draft is going to be very ‘bitty’ which will mean a considerable editing job when I get to the end in March or thereabouts. My target this week was 33,000 words. I’m currently sitting at 33,208!

I’ll also be giving reading of my two other books.

Lords of Midnight is well on the way as well, passing 33,614 words this week. I’m currently working on a major battle scene (which is another ‘new’ thing for me, requiring a bit of thought on how to put it together). First light on this novel will also occur at Fantasticon and I have a reading planned which will give fans of the game a flavour of the story I’m writing, but also introduce the concepts to those who haven’t heard of it yet.

Lords of Midnight is far more straightforward to write than Premonition as it has been planned in detail from beginning to end.

And my own novel, Shadeward: Exoneration, though already on sale, which be officially launched at Fantasticon. I’ll be doing a reading from this as well. Hopefully most of you are aware of this series and it’s been good to see it’s been well received online thus far. With two more books to go, I have my work cut out for the next few years!

So three readings are coming. Looking forward to seeing as many of you at Fantasticon as possible – it’s going to be very exciting indeed!