Countdown to publication

by | Mar 21, 2025 | Uncategorized, Writing life

It’s going to be a very short blog piece this week because I’m in the throes of getting Burke and the War of 1812 ready for publication. This is the eighth book in the James Burke series and I’m obviously getting better at the finishing touches because formatting it for paperback took much less time than I was expecting. I may may even be ahead of my planned publication date of 26 April. It’s always a bit nerve-wracking, though. I’ve only just got the final cover design and there’s always the danger that Amazon might object to it for one reason or another.

Some previous covers

I’d love to share the cover with you all, but apparently it’s normal to make a big deal out of the cover reveal, so I’m wondering if I should leave some time for the drum roll and general excitement. I’m not convinced that all this sort of publication build-up really helps that much for we independents. It’s different if you’re a big publisher and have to persuade retailers to stock your books, and work out what your print run is, and all that sort of thing, but that’s hardly likely to be a problem for me. Do you get excited about people talking about books you can’t buy yet? Or do you just want them to get on with publishing the things and not teasing you with promises? Let me know. Engaging with your audience is supposed to be an important part of marketing a new book but, although I’m here on my blog and on Twitter and Bluesky and Threads, engagement always seems pretty limited. Now the writing is done, I have lots of time to respond to anything people throw at me, so do feel free to ask me questions about writing, the War of 1812, or whatever. I’ll talk about tango, too, if you want.

I guess I ought to be thinking about what I’m going to write next – if I am going to write anything next. As with all my James Burke books, this one ends with a promise that ‘Burke will be back’ but I’m not entirely sure that he will be. I’m hoping that the excitement about Trump threatening to annex Canada might mean that the War of 1812 is suddenly fashionable and that this will be the book that finally breaks through and gets James Burke noticed outside the small circle (including you, dear reader) who have been following his adventures so far. If it doesn’t, I have to ask myself if I want to keep doing this. Learning to make sense of the War of 1812 came dangerously close to hard work and the book has taken me about a year to write. It’s reminded me how much easier it is to write contemporary fantasy and I know there are people who would like me to write more of the Galbraith & Pole books. Or I could just spend more time dancing (although not that much more time as we are already out two or three times most weeks and we’ll be dancing more once outdoor tango starts in the summer).

Anyway, if you want any more James Burke books, please buy this one and tell your friends to buy it too, and PLEASE post a review on Amazon. (If you’ve read any of the others and not yet reviewed – or reviewed them before I was publishing myself – please review them now.)

So that’s my life at the moment. We’re going to have a party on 26 April and someone is making a cake that looks like the White House and the icing will be singed much as the real thing was in 1814. We don’t get as far as 1814 in this book, but if there is another, I’m going to try to get the burning of the White House into that.

Not waving but drowning

Not waving but drowning

by | Oct 11, 2024 | Napoleonic history, Writing life

I’m so jealous of people who can just sit down and write. Back in the day, when I wrote books and reports for business, I could churn out words faster than most, but not a lot of imagination was required. Writing fiction, I find much harder work.

These blog posts fall somewhere between the two. They’re not as mechanical as much business prose but, although I am sometimes reminded that people will judge me on the quality of my writing, I’m not as worried about style as I am in my novels. Even so, they take a little while to write, especially if they have any historical information in them because I’ve learned that over the years that is always best to check details rather than rely on memory.

At the moment, I’m working on the next James Burke book, provisionally, if unimaginatively, called Burke and the War of 1812. I’m finding it more than usually challenging. Whilst by now I know enough about the Napoleonic wars not to have to keep checking every detail, the War of 1812 is new territory to me.

Not that long ago, I had no idea what the War of 1812 was. If that’s you too, it was a silly little scrap between Britain and the young United States of America notable, in this country at least, for the British burning down the White House. Most people in Britain tend to overlook it because there were other things going on in Europe at the time: Napoleon invading Russia for one.

Because it was quite a small war, there were few great strategic clashes of armies. Instead there was a fight here, a clash there, a naval engagement somewhere else. Pulling it all together into something that can be made a coherent adventure for one person has proved a challenge. In fact, it has proved impossible, so for much of the time James Burke and his trusty sidekick William Brown are operating independently from each other. This brings its own problems in writing as keeping track of them and having them meet up at crucial moments is not that straightforward. Which is why this week’s post is a short cri de coeur about the struggles of a historical novelist before I dive back into a world of Shawnee warriors, heroic colonials and (sorry American readers) dreadful Yankees.

At the current rate of progress, Burke and the War of 1812 should see the light of day early in 2025.

Featured photo: The Battle of Queenston Heights, 13 October 1812. Library and Archives Canada, 2895485