Well, the book is printed and the eBook ready and on August 17th and 30th it will be D-Day (USA and Europe dates respectively). Why we have two different dates is beyond me but we do.
Six years ago, I was visiting with my son Paul who was taking a semester at King’s College in London and we were sat in a pub drinking some real good English beer. The conversation turned to the nature of reality and magic (as it does if you know me!) and I began to outline a basic idea for a story. The basic idea was that certain people with magical training observe better than others and really do have some ability to create reality. These people were being killed off until all that remained was one last observer. Paul listened to this quietly until I had completed the idea and simply said “Dad, you should write that as a novel.” observing in the process what an awesome film the story would make. Of course, through the haze of a good beer or two things always sound good.
Later, at home, I sat down and I wrote what is Chapter One of the book. That was that. Periodically, I would talk about the novel idea but I couldn’t bring myself to write another word. Paul asked about it from time-to-time too.
Then, just before Christmas, and I have no real idea why, I sat down and looked at that chapter again. Slowly, I started to type and then suddenly the story finally began to emerge. In just three weeks, 40,000 words spilled out one after the other as my obsession to finish the story that was writing itself grew. Every couple of days, I sent the emerging MS to co-author of The Mystical Hexagram, SC Vincent and she would write back “What, you can’t stop there….” or something similar.
Finally, sometime in February, it was done. It was short – a novella really – but it was exactly what I had imagined it would be sitting in that pub 6-years previously. The Last Observer was a reality – my reality. So on the D-day(s), I will be watching and hoping that many, many others will share the story with me and perhaps think a bit about what we are, why we are here and what it is all about this thing called life.
The Last Observer: A Magical Battle for Reality is available for pre-order now on all Amazon and many other sites. It will be released August 17th and August 30th respectively in the US and Europe.
Here is hoping….