Publication excitement!
One of the funny things about publishing is the delay you often experience – the times you have to remind yourself about the work you did last year and why people should care about it now. Today is one of those days – now don’t get me wrong, it’s not hard to remind myself why I enjoyed writing this novella, but it feels slightly surreal because… well, part of me can’t quite believe this is new to the world. I delivered the text 16 months ago so there’s a bit of me that just assumes the world’s already seen it!
I am however delighted to say that THE MAN WITH ONE NAME is released today and you should go out and buy it – or maybe, stay in and buy it since you should be able to do that from the comfort of your e-reader. It’s a fun little novella that is equally good for new readers and existing fans of Lynx, which means it’s perfect for absolutely everyone! Set several years prior to the events of Stranger of Tempest, it follows a slightly slimmer, slightly more brittle, wandering gunman called Lynx and what happens when he’s faced with a bully.
When I had the idea of doing novellas to go between novels and bridge the gap between publication, it was exactly this sort of fun story I wanted to write. I must admit I hadn’t thought of the story yet, or even written that many novellas, but part of the fun of writing is challenging yourself so that’s what I did. Stranger of Tempest had two elements that led me naturally to this – firstly the wilds that exist between human spheres of influence and secondly the man with ‘a past’ as its lead character.
Lynx evolved as I planned and wrote Stranger, but from the outset I wanted someone who fundamentally wanted to do the right thing, even if that put him in danger. There’s an element of the wild west lawman/hero about that and the more the setting hinted towards it, the more I found myself drawn to this idea. Throwing in the fact that Lynx is his assumed name, I kept being reminded of the classic Eastwood character and decided a little homage was in order. So Lynx appears on a pale horse (in a manner of speaking anyway) among several small nods to the movie Pale Rider. He does things his own way of course and I wanted to keep the faint silliness I put into the novels, but who would want a straight clone of the story anyway?
Now sit back and enjoy the story. It’s not required reading for the series, but if you like that you’ll certainly enjoy this. And yes, the dogs are a real breed. Sometimes real life is even sillier than your imagination.