Summer Updates

Summer Updates — Next Book, New Deals, Conventions, and Events!

Hi everyone!

Well, as I’ve said in previous newsletters, I moved away from a monthly approach to one where I update you several times a year when big things have happened that might be of interest. I’ve been re-assessing my approach to newsletters recently, and I think that a quarterly newsletter is right amount for me. And hopefully for you, too!

If you have any thoughts about the kinds of things you might want me to talk about in the newsletter outside of just general news I discuss, feel free to drop me a line at [email protected] 

NEXT BOOK

The next book from me is called DISSOLUTION and it will be out on March 25 in the US & Canada (Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House) and March 27 in the UK & Commonwealth (HarperVoyager / HarperCollins UK).

We don’t have a UK cover yet, but I’m thrilled to reveal the US cover which I think looks fantastic.

And you can discover what the book is about here:

A woman dives into her husband’s memories to uncover a decades-old feud threatening reality itself in this staggering technothriller from the bestselling author of Ascension
 
Maggie Webb has lived the last decade caring for elderly husband, Stanley, as memory loss gradually erases all the beautiful moments they created together. It’s the loneliest she’s ever felt in her life. 
 
When a mysterious stranger named Hassan appears at her door, he reveals a shocking truth: Stanley isn’t losing his memories. Someone is actively removing them to hide a long-buried secret from coming to light. If Maggie does what she’s told, she can reverse it. She can get her husband back. 
 
Led by Hassan and his technological marvels, Maggie breaks into her husband’s mind, probing the depths of his memories in an effort to save him. The deeper she dives, the more she unravels a mystery spanning continents and centuries, each layer more complex than the last. 

But Hassan cannot be trusted. Not just memories are disappearing, but pieces of reality itself. If Maggie cannot find out what Stanley did all those years ago, and what Hassan is after, she risks far more than her husband’s life. The very course of human history hangs in the balance.

If you want to pre-order it in the US, or add it to Goodreads, do go ahead. There will be UK pre-order links up in the not too distant future and I’ll be sure to share them on here.

I’m really excited for this one. There’s a lot going on, but for some touchpoints, the book marries (hopefully) the propulsive speculative thrills of Inception, the character-focused complexities of The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and the emotional resonance of The Time Travellers Wife, plus a bunch of other stuff too. It’s both the most exciting and most personal book I've ever written and I can't wait for you to read it.

NEW DEALS

More books are on the horizon, some I can now talk about in a bit more detail with contracts signed, etc.

After DISSOLUTION, my next novel (which I’ve recently finished my final draft of before going to editors) is going to be EXHUMATION. It’ll be a way off publication with next year’s focus really being on DISSOLUTION, but I can’t wait to share that one with you too. It’s really ambitious and was a bigger challenge to write than anything I’ve done so far, I think.

In the meantime, I sold two novellas to Tor, the first of which will publish internationally next year too, so that’s two books from me in 2025. The first novella — entitled EXTREMITY — is a bonkers sci-fi murder mystery police book that is just a whole load of fun. The second, which I’ve tentatively titled ABYSS, should follow the year after (2026).

There are other moves on the horizon. Recently, I wrote a crime novel which I’m going to try and get my agent to sell under a pseudonym. I had a great time writing it and I really hope we get it out there into the world. More on that if we do! Once I’ve finished ABYSS, I’ll also be returning to ILLUMINATION, which will be my next spec fic novel after EXHUMATION. Can’t say too much about that one now, but if ASCENSION was my ‘mountain’ book, ILLUMINATION will be my ‘moon’ book. Yep — we’re going lunar, but perhaps not in the way you might expect…

CONVENTIONS AND EVENTS

Summer is Con-time, which means busy time for me. After a cracking Cymera festival in June, I’ll be at WorldCon in Glasgow in early August for the full five days. As well as doing various events, moderating a panel, running a workshop, etc. I’ll just generally be about networking and vibing with the Con. If you’re there, please do come find me and say hi!

Here you can see a list of events I’ll be at:

In particular, the ESFF Writers Book Party on the 9th at 1pm will be a real hoot I think, and a great opportunity to discover the next books coming out from NINE fantastic authors including me, AY Chao, Lorraine Wilson, LR Lam, Genoveva Dimova, Annabel Campbell, David Goodman, Catriona Silvey, and Shauna Lawless. There’ll be free drinks and cake, and a chance to hear about the new books and chat about them. Do come along!

Then there’s a book launch in early September, where I’ll be hosting the wonderful David Goodman’s debut launch, the spy thriller ‘A Reluctant Spy’ at Blackwells in Edinburgh. It’s such a wonderful book, and Dave is a truly talented writer, so I can’t wait for this one to be out in the world.

After that, you’ll find me back at Bloody Scotland moderating a great panel on ‘missing persons’ on the Saturday at 1pm and generally networking and vibing with the wonderful crime writers up there too.

NEXT NEWSLETTER

If I’m going quarterly (I am), the next letter will be coming your way in November, by which time I should hopefully have physical ARCs for Dissolution. I’ll be running a giveaway through the newsletter that you get unique access to as a newsletter subscriber, so keep an eye out for that one.

I may hopefully have other exciting news, too. As ever in the publishing world, there are many discussions and deals happening under the surface in both the book world and other media (I currently have not one, but two films in pre-production that I can’t talk about publicly yet). Watch this space for more then or keep an eye on my socials (by which I mean X/Twitter) for any more up to date news as it happens.