Chris Wooding

So, 2020, eh? I thought I’d be living in the future by now.

Welcome to another of my increasingly tardy updates in which I reveal nothing because everything is secret. The headline news is that there has not, to be honest, been massive amounts of progress on the sequel to the Ember Blade. I’m creeping up to the halfway point but I’ve been working for Ubisoft most of last year and between that and having two sleep-sapping infants in the house there hasn’t been as much time as I’d hoped to get on with it. I’m trying to forge out time when I can but there’s not a lot to go round these days. What I can say is don’t expect it this year. Even when the manuscript is done there will be a long wait for editing, so late 2021 is probably as early as we could make it. Apologies to all those champing at the bit. It’s getting done. Slowly.

As a consolation prize, in a few months I’ll be able to tell you about the game I’ve been working on, so there’s that?

Happy 2020. Back to blasting my companions out the airlock in Nemesis…

Wow, bet you all thought I was dead, didn’t you? As my longtime readers will testify, social media has never really been my thing. I need to get Brandon Sanderson to give me some lessons…

So here’s where we are. Ember Blade 2 is about 1/3rd done, some way north of 100K words (ie I’ve already written a novel’s worth, now I need to write two more novels to make one book). I’m loving what I’ve got but progress has slowed considerably since the start of the year. Firstly, I was getting pretty burned out, and them chapters weren’t coming as easy as they did. Same thing happened during The Iron Jackal when I was writing the Ketty Jay books, and during the last of the Braided Path books: after a certain length of wordage (circa 400K, it seems) I start grinding to a halt and need a break.

That break came along when I got the chance to write for a super awesome AAA videogame, and since the end of March that’s what I’ve been doing. Details will be forthcoming when I’m allowed to but for now that’s all I can give you. What that means is that I’ve got a lot less time to write the Ember Blade sequel, but in reality I was going so slowly anyway that it’s not made much difference to the overall progress. The difference is that before I was spending all day ploughing onward and generating a small amount of words and a lot of frustration; now I write joyous and swift whenever I get the chance.

No doubt there will be some disappointed readers out there unhappy at the news, but with books this size – for me, at least – this was always going to be a marathon, not a sprint. On a more positive note, I’m not a big rewriter these days so I’m not likely to be going back and reworking huge chunks of it once it is done. Part of the reason it takes so long is that I spend a lot of time planning and worldbuilding. Plus it’s looking like 300K or so, same size as the last, so when you get the book it’s like getting two books in one 😀

Happy summer, everyone!

Happy New Year!

Time for one of my hyper infrequent blog updates! Well, I’m about 20-odd chapters into the sequel to the Ember Blade, but a large chunk of time was spent upfront planning the whole thing so it’s not going quite as slowly as it might seem. That’s probably about one-fifth; I’m hoping it won’t be quite as long as its predecessor and certainly no longer, but who know what the gods of epic fantasy will decree? I’m also working on a ton of other stuff that as ever I can’t talk about just because.

One of those things that I CAN, however, talk about is that I spent several months of last year working as a Narrative Consultant on The Creative Assembly’s new video game IP, helping with worldbuilding, story and character design, and all kinds of goodies thereabouts. I can’t tell you anything more about the game since it’s not been announced yet but it’s gonna be soooo good!

The Ember Blade has had a slew, a veritable SLEW of rave reviews by the way, so if you haven’t bought it yet, you are objectively on the wrong side of history and should correct this immediately by buying it here. And if you’ve read it and enjoyed it, and you want to do me a favour and give it a review on Amazon at that same link, that’d help me out loads.

I had a request on Twitter to post a map up as it’s not easy to enjoy maps on an ebook, so here it is. Unfortunately it’s a pdf so you’ll need to click the link to download it. I promise no spybots will swarm your computer when you do. Promise.

Ember-Blade-map

Have a good 2019!

Go and get it, my pretties!!! In hardback, ebook and Audible.

In the UK

US: Ebook and Audible

Physical copy release date in the US is TBC but you can buy it now from Book Depository who will ship worldwide for free.

Audible clip here, read by Simon Bubb.

Delighted to announce that I will be a guest of honour at Forum Fantastico in Lisbon this year. All the pastéis de nata in Portugal are wobbling in fear at the news.

For those who’ve pre-ordered, the Ember Blade release date has been pushed back a few months to September to fit in with publishing schedules (and cos it took ages to edit). Apologies. Sept 20th, for definite! You can pre-order the hardback here.

What HAVEN’T I been up to in 2017? Buying Bitcoin, that’s what. Otherwise I would have cashed it in and bought an island full of zombies as a private hunting ground for my friends and I.

What I did (the stuff I can tell you about, anyway) was finish off the Ember Blade, write another book while I was waiting for the edits to get back to me, then edit the Ember Blade some more. Truly, it is epic in all senses, including how long it takes to go through and correct all the lazy similes, turgid sentences and bits that don’t quite add up. Currently it’s slated to appear in June 2018 and since I only have a couple more weeks worth of edits to do, I’m pretty certain that won’t change.

But wait! Another book, did I say? Yes indeed, for I needed a palate cleanser after spending 2 years writing such a weighty tome, so I wrote a zippy book for middle school kids called JACK FROM EARTH. Think Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy meets Star Wars. Knockabout fun perfect for the loved ones in your life too young and innocent to start on RETRIBUTION FALLS. ETA currently unknown as we’ll get into editing it in Jan after I’ve done the final delivery of The Ember Blade.

In scripty news I wrote the pilot ep for a TV adaptation of a bestselling YA series which may or may not arrive on your screens in due course. I did a bunch of other stuff that has to remain secret. Also I’m hoping to have some major news very soon about one of my own projects but then again, I may very well not. As ever, I’ll let you know as soon as something concrete happens.

Also the stork brought another delivery which slowed things down a bit workwise, but was otherwise pretty ace.

So that’s it from 2017. I expect 2018 will see The Ember Blade becoming the major publishing event of the century, just in time for the world to plummet into armageddon. See you later (shortly before I ambush you with a rusty chain and feast on your tender flesh).

Happy New Year!

Look at the front page of this site, everyone! Broken Sky is back! 😀

(LATE) ME ALERT!!!

I’ll be attending Nine Worlds this weekend since I had such awesome fun there last time. I’ll be there on the Friday and Sunday, but not Saturday as some friends of mine have inconveniently decided to get married right in the middle of the year’s greatest geekfest! Don’t people check their calendars anymore? *eyeroll*

Schedule:

FRIDAY 10 am (bright and early): Megan Leigh (Breaking The Glass Slipper podcast) interviews little old me about all kinds of stuff! Signing at the Big Green Bookstore stand right after.

6:45 pm – Twisted Tales: a panel about the darker side of fairytales

SUNDAY

1:30 pm Things You Never Thought Could Be: a panel about YA fiction.

For more info click here and type ‘Wooding’ in the search field.

When I’m not in panels I shall very likely be in the bar, er, ‘networking’ or in the gaming room nerding out on all the boardgames I can find all at once. Also I use conventions as an opportunity to hunt down potential rivals and assassinate them, so if they’ve written a good book in the last year or so and they’re at Nine Worlds, they’re probably on my list.

At last! All is revealed! Here is the doorstopper I’ve been working on all this time. Release date 15th February 2018. Available for preorder now. All the info here.