what’s Julian up to now?

January 29^th, 2024

Hey and hello there!

Welcome to “What’s Julian Up to Now?”, the show where I, Julian, tell you what I’m doing. Look at all the lights! Wow, there’s a live band playing! Right there, behind the cheap sound system. And we’ve got celebrity guest stars. That’s right — there’s a — a, uh, Timothée Chalamet *lookalike* over there. (Legally, I’m required to tell you there’s no relation whatsoever.) … Woo.

Listen. This project cost me an arm and a leg. So, if you could read the blog post and maybe pick yourself up an eBook, or a paperback or two, it’d be much appreciated.

In all seriousness, it’s going to be a busy and excellent year! Here’s the scoop of what’s upcoming:

1. Lore of the Lost: The Ghost of Mount Morbin — decades before The Rave, to protect his wife and son, a man turns once more to the darkness… to strike a final bargain — coming 1 March 2024!
2. Dragonslayers (The Aelfraver Trilogy Book 2.5) — between the events of The Rebel and The Ruin, plucky rogues are pitted against ancient time-bending cultists, in a struggle that will shape the final days of an Empire — coming Summer 2024!
3. The Ruin (The Aelfraver Trilogy Book 3) — concluding the epic trilogy, the rebellion comes to The Capital; one queen destroys another, as lords and gods fall from their thrones — coming early 2025!
4. The Rave audiobook is over 50% complete! Further announcements to follow in a future post

NEW NOVELLA, NEW SERIES

First on the agenda: The Ghost of Mount Morbin!

While Ghost is a standalone story, this novella is also — I’m very excited to announce! — the first installment in the Lore of the Lost, a series that will follow new characters, weave new tales, explore new environments, develop new magic systems, and much, much more. It’s slated to be a massive expansion of the universe that began back in January 2021 with Alina and The Rave.

Oh and by the way, a little birdie told me you can get yourself a FREE eBook of Ghost by signing up for my newsletter. But you didn’t hear it from me…

For those who’d love a beautiful little paperback to have and to hold, you’ll be able to snag yourself a copy on Amazon come March 1^st, 2024!

INSTANT CULT CLASSIC

Secondly, busily and in secret have I been toiling away on yet another thrilling new project… Dragonslayers (The Aelfraver Trilogy Book 2.5)! Following familiar characters but also bringing in several important new faces, this novel builds on the themes and antagonistic forces that will come to a head in The Ruin. This book’s got everything: time-jumping, reality-altering nightmares, demons, duels to the death… That’s all I should say for now, but stay tuned for more.

Dragonslayers will release in Amazon Kindle, Paperback, and Hardcover forms Summer 2024! Specific details to follow in the near future.

STATUS UPDATE: THE RUIN

Thirdly, book 3 — The Ruin. I have crawled out of my cave to inform you that I am deep into editing this story, and putting all my effort into “sticking the landing” on the conclusion of the trilogy. I’m genuinely excited beyond words to share this story that means so much to me with the world. Going into it the second edit, though, I realized that I had so much to say — so many ideas — that I couldn’t possibly fit them all into even a single epic book. My solution was Dragonslayers. Because Dragonslayers is a side story that’s still tied to the events of the trilogy, I’m able to explore more of the tense action happening elsewhere — between the major installments — moments leading up to the conflicts that will define the end of the trilogy. This decision freed up considerable bandwidth, allowing me to deliver as powerful an action-packed, emotional thrill ride as possible — in both Dragonslayers and The Ruin.

So, although it sounds, well, weird to phrase it this way, writing a whole other novel actually has sped up my editing process for book 3.

AUDIOBOOK ON THE WAY

Lastly — but definitely not least-ly — The Rave AUDIOBOOK. It’s coming! We don’t have an exact release date scheduled yet, but I expect to have an update for you sooner rather than later… !

That’s about enough for one post, I’d say. Catch you all in a future update, at a convention, or on the mailing list.

If you’re reading this in the future, do we have lightsabers or real VR yet? We do?? Nice! How is it? …

…

Wait — [INSERT CELEBRITY OR PUBLIC FIGURE] did what now? They did? You’re kidding.

Oh, you gotta go? Okay, no worries, my friend. Thanks for stopping by! I always enjoy our chats. Be good to yourself, yeah? Yeah, you too.

Bye!