As any creative artist can tell
you, the muse comes in many different guises and you never know where or when or even how inspiration will strike. I’m a novelist
and short story writer so words are my thing, but I've never been entirely sure whether my writing is what you'd call art. I do write a lot though!
In 2015 I signed a five-book deal with Joffe Books for a Brit spy series featuring Thomas Bladen, a Surveillance Officer on the lowest rungs of British Intelligence. In 2018 the fifth and final book came out and that was going to be the end of Thomas's adventures. In 2020 Joffe Books produced a box set of THE COMPLETE THOMAS BLADEN THRILLERS to round it off.
I then began a new crime mystery series for Joffe Books, starring Detective Craig Wild. New characters, new set-up. LONG SHADOWS debuted in 2020 and WEST COUNTRY MURDER followed in 2022. I’m currently wrestling with the plot for a third book.
But…sometimes old characters refuse to fade away and they return to us with new ideas and adventures, long after we thought they’d gone. PATHFINDER is one such story and follows on from FLASHPOINT (published in 2018, remember!).
The muse presented me with a compelling premise and the seed was a single question:
What if people started dying because of a secret no one else was supposed to know?
Weirdly, although I completed it this year, PATHFINDER picks up right after where FLASHPOINT ended. No spoilers here but there’s a major event in Book 5 that has dire consequences in Book 6.
As far as my publisher was
concerned, the original series was done and dusted, but they encouraged me to
try other options if I wanted. After contacting a couple of other publishers, without success, I spoke with a good friend and fellow writer and he nudged me towards self-publishing.
The
last time I self-pubbed a novel was back in 2012, so it has been a bit
of a learning curve. This time I brought in expertise for the
cover design and final formatting at the outset. I am very pelased with the results.
I don't know whether PATHFINDER will make any money or climb the Amazon charts. I hope so, but that wasn't my main motivation. I simply believed in the book and wrote it for the people who loved the series. You could say that's when I knew it was art after all!
Derek
PATHFINDER
Surveillance
Officer Thomas Bladen is back and he’s a man on a mission.
THE SHADOW STATE AND THE ALLIANCE HAVE
BEEN AT WAR FOR DECADES.
After seven dissidents meet to try and end the deadlock, they think their secret is safe.
They’re wrong.
A near-miss on the London Underground is just the beginning for a contract killer with friends in high places. When no one else can be trusted, the fate of seven people rests with Thomas, who will learn the hard way about the price of loyalty and the cost of failure. The only rule is to stay alive.
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0CBZ32YP6
US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CBZ32YP6
