It’s been a hell of a year. In a good way, I mean. A very good way.
Where to even start. With heartfelt thanks, I think. Because I owe a huge amount of thanks to many people. So: my deepest thanks to everyone who read The Silverblood Promise, who shouted about it online, who left reviews on Amazon and Goodreads (and elsewhere), and who emailed or messaged me to tell me how much they enjoyed the book (reading your messsages always makes my day). It has really meant the world to me to see my debut novel receive such an incredible reaction. And a special thanks to all the amazing booksellers out there (especially Ash at Waterstones Picadilly and Anya at Waterstones Covent Garden) who have supported the book in their respective stores – I’m so grateful to you all for your enthusiasm.
The publication of The Silverblood Promise in April (in the UK) and in May (in North America) was a special moment for me. Walking into a bookstore and seeing my book on the shelves was the fulfilment of a childhood dream. Anything after that, I always told myself, would be cherry-on-top stuff. Bonus material, if you like. Much to my surprise – and delight – it turned out there was a lot of bonus material.
The first was getting an endorsement from Scott Lynch. I swear my soul temporarily left my body for fifteen minutes when I found out. I’ve been a huge fan of Scott’s work since I read The Lies of Locke Lamora in 2006, and I’d say he’s probably the biggest influence on my own work. So knowing that Scott read my book and didn’t think it sucked – in fact, that he enjoyed it enough to give it an endorsement – was just mindblowing to me. It still is. I even had the chance to thank Scott in person at Worldcon in Glasgow, which was the icing on the cake.
Then came the Broken Binding special edition, which looks incredible (huge thanks to Jeff Brown and Matt at the Broken Binding) and – even more incredibly – sold out a 2,000-copy print run after just four days of pre-sale. Which is crazy.
It was also a thrill to see The Silverblood Promise receive a very respectable 4-star review in SFX magazine, as well as starred reviews from Library Journal and Kirkus (the latter described the book as ‘an undeniable masterwork’ which, y’know, I’ll take all day long).
I had a fantastic time doing my first live events, which started with a panel at Cymera Festival in Edinburgh (a brilliant festival, looking forward to going again) and ended with a sold-out event at Waterstones Piccadilly with John Gwynne and Tasha Suri. It was a privilege to share the stage with such great authors. I’ve already got some exciting live events lined up for 2025 – keep an eye on my events page if you’re interested.
I also really enjoyed chatting to Tariq and Marco at the Page One podcast, of which I’m a big fan. I also did a load of other podcasts – many of these can be found here – which were all really good fun. Thanks to all the podcasters who hosted me!
More recently, seeing the paperback of The Silverblood Promise getting its own table display in Waterstones Piccadilly and in the Waterloo branch of Foyles, was incredible. You don’t expect that for a debut novel – often you’re happy if the bookstore even has a copy spine-out on the shelf – so this was really awesome. Thanks again to all the booksellers who have supported the book! You guys are the real MVPs.
Other cool cherry-on-top stuff:
- Brenock O’Connor providing superb narration for The Silverblood Promise audiobook – it was a privilege to have such a talented actor reading my book
- Selling Czech translation rights to Host in the Czech Republic – really thrilled to get my first translation deal
- The first (and second) pieces of fan art for The Silverblood Promise dropped from the brilliant Dejan Delic – it was both exciting and humbling to see such a talented artist creating art based on my words
- I did an AMA on Reddit, which was fun to do after having read so many others over the years
- Signing books and chatting with readers at all the various events – this has been such a joy. Book people are the best people
So yeah, as I said: a hell of a year in a very good way.
Buuuuut (there’s always a but, right?) it’s also been a tough year. While all the amazing Silverblood-related stuff has been happening, I’ve also been furiously working away on The Blackfire Blade. To describe Blackfire as Silverblood’s bratty, difficult, misbehaving younger sibling would be . . . pretty damned accurate, actually. This novel has been really hard to write, and at times I wasn’t sure I could do it. But the secret to success in writing is just to keep bloody going, one word at a time. So I did, and – after a gruelling December – I finally finished and submitted the third draft. It’s not there yet, it needs a bit more finetuning, but I’d say it’s 90% done. More importantly – and perhaps for the first time since I started writing it – I feel confident about the book. I think it’s really good and a worthy follow-up to Silverblood. You’ll have to wait until next November to find out whether you agree, but you can pre-order now from most retailers, should you feel so inclined. The art absolutely kicks arse, so you’ll get a pretty cover at least.
Anyway, 2024 – for the most part – has been fantastic. Roll on 2025.
Thanks for reading and wishing you all the best for the new year!
James Logan 