Easter Updates

Hi everyone

It’s Easter Weekend! This means many things in my household — the kids are off school, we’re off on holiday on Tuesday island-hopping on the west coast of Scotland, and I’m taking a week off writing and editing.

But, there are a few updates that are worth sending in your direction!

The first, of course, is that ASCENSION came out in paperback in the UK last week. I’ve already been popping into bookshops and signing some copies (I swung into the wonderful Portobello Bookshop yesterday to sign their stock) and it’s really nice to see it cropping up around the place. For those of you in the US, you’ll have to wait until 23rd April for the paperback, but already it’s nice seeing it become accessible to a whole new group of readers.

If you’re in the UK, you can pick it up online or any reputable bookstore. If your local bookstore don’t have it in, feel free to tell them they are not reputable and advise them how to correct this!

ASCENSION did really well last year. I’m so proud of that book and what it achieved, from being nominated for the Goodreads’ Choice Awards, being an New York Times Editor’s Choice pick, hitting the bestseller lists in Spain, appearing in ‘Best Books of 2023’ from places like Vulture Magazine, the LA Times, the Sunday Times, and more.

So what’s next this year?

Well, it’s going to a be busy year for me, but no actual releases. The plan is very much to give ASCENSION: The Paperback space to breathe and sell before we hit you with the next one.

2025 will see a few releases, though!

DISSOLUTION — another speculative thriller that I’m intensely proud of and I think is better in almost every way than the last — will be coming to you March 2025 in hardback across the world. Honestly, I don’t want to spoil anything else at this point, but let’s just say it’s really special, and even more ambitious than Ascension in so many ways. The title might change, as we’re still early in the production schedule, but I’m hoping it doesn’t, if I’m honest.

As well as this, there’ll be a novella by me coming from Tordotcom at some point in 2025 as well. The date isn’t tied down, but late summer is being discussed. We haven’t 100% settled on a title, either, but I’m going to take a leaf out of my fellow writer Dave Goodman’s book when talking about future project and call it PROJECT TORGRIMSEN. This one is a speculative crime thriller / mad SF caper that I’ve been describing as True Detective if it was written by Philip K Dick. I hope you all enjoy it when it comes!

Other than editing these, I’ve finished a second draft of PROJECT BURIAL, which will be the next speculative fiction novel after DISSOLUTION, hopefully coming 2026, and another secret foray into crime thrillers I’m calling PROJECT GILFEATHER. I’m about 65k words into the first draft of that, and hope to have that finished by May. You might even see that in 2025, too, if we can sell it soon! You never know.

Oh, and then I’ll need to draft a second novella which I’m contracted for with Tordotcom which hopefully will come to you later in 2026. I've not started that yet, but I’ve got a bunch of crazy ideas I’m excited to play with.

Seems like a lot, right? Well, yes. But I love doing it and hopefully after a seemingly quiet 2024, you’ll be seeing lots from me soon.

There are also some other exciting irons in the fire in other mediums that I can’t talk about yet, but hopefully there might be some news I can share soon!

In the meantime, keep an eye out for the paperback of ASCENSION in shops if you’re in the UK, and look out for it at the end of April if you’re in the US.

In case you don’t hear from me before, I’ll be at Cymera in Edinburgh this year, running a workshop and just generally milling about and being at the bar, and I’ll be on some panels and probably a workshop too at WorldCon in Glasgow in August. If you’re at any of these events, do come and say hi! I’m very friendly and only bite if I’m very hungry.

Happy Easter, all!