While I was going through some old files, I happened across the cover letter that I sent when I was submitting Blackwing. I thought that it be interesting to people to see it, so, here it is. It’s nothing flashy or that doesn’t go outside the kind of guidelines that you’d usually see, but well worth noting that I provided exactly what was asked for.

Dear Mr Drury,

The Howling of the Sky is a fast paced, fatalistic epic fantasy that leaves the reader questioning whether they ever knew who to support in the first place.

The republic might be facing annihilation, but Ryhalt Galharrow’s ambitions have long since been abandoned at the bottom of a brandy bottle. When a raven tattoo rips itself out of his arm to deliver a desperate message, Galharrow and his disturbed childhood sweetheart are forced together to unravel a long dead wizard’s mathematical paradox. Princes, corrupt flesh-shapers and the ghosts of the tortured wastelands all seek to destroy them, but if the paradox cannot be unravelled then the republic will be lost.

The Howling of the Sky is an epic fantasy novel of 135,000 words and would find a principal audience among fans of ‘grimdark’ fiction such as Daniel Polansky’s Low Town series, Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora or Joe Abercrombie’s First Law trilogy.

I currently work as an academic and critical writing lecturer at a London university but I have been writing fantasy novels for my own entertainment since I could first pick up a wooden sword. I am also a practitioner of historic European martial arts and hold a couple of history degrees, and hope that my enthusiasm for historical accuracy shows through the book’s setting.

The first three chapters and a brief synopsis are enclosed for your kind attention. The completed manuscript and an expanded synopsis are available upon request.

Thank you for taking the time to consider my work, and I look forward to your response.

Kind regards,

Ed McDonald