Hey, and hello to new subscribers and regular readers.

If you clicked the free-to-read prequel to the Spectral Detective Series, called Into Darkness, I hope you are enjoying the story.

For those familiar with my fantasy Novella and Novel, the genre shift might seem, at first, to be a leap, but in many ways, these stories, separated by tens of thousands of years, exist in my own joined-up mental universe.

In real life, my phone recently decided to sport a “light sabre” screen—a thin green line slicing down, in my case, pretty much the middle. Software glitches can cause the fault, but having ruled those out, for me it’s a new screen or a new phone —so upgrade time! Problems can be both challenges and opportunities, pushing us into something new. In stories, characters usually face sterner difficulties than faulty manufacturing. It’s a mindset that echoes through archetypal myths, classic stories, and my own work—turning life’s lemons into lemonade.

Into Darkness is a thrilling tale of derring-do, blending tragedy, failure, and triumph for Arthur King and his team. While no one emerges unaffected, King, in particular, is changed forever.This novella tells the story of how that happens.

The novel-to-come continues this same story, and it’s in two parts; the first is pretty much done, bar polishing. King in the Dark begins with King coming to terms with the consequences of that life-changing event and discovering a new role: that of a detective.

King in the Dark begins at a RAF Hospital in England, where King, recovering from his life-changing injuries, begins to navigate a complicated world.

Last Friday, I talked about the challenges of describing how Spectral Detection works, how King’s unique kind of blindness helps and hinders him, and it is both a challenge and an opportunity.

In the first part of King in the Dark, King returns to America, transferred to the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where he meets a mob-connected Sergeant, Jimmy Doyle, who has his own wartime secrets. It is also a story about the wider world; the end of the hot war, and the beginning of the cold one.

Threads from Into Darkness weave through this narrative, grounded in real history. The Allies’ race for “Wonderwaffen”—advanced technologies like the V2 rocket and Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter—drove competition to claim the losing side’s innovations. Operation Paperclip, for instance, brought scientists like Wernher von Braun, architect of the V2 and later the Apollo program’s Saturn V rocket, to the USA. The war’s final days also saw the dawn of atomic bombs and the CIA’s creation.

Washington itself becomes a character—steeped in politics, crime, and corruption, with secret societies and mysterious symbols lurking in the shadows. These elements take centre stage in the second half of King in the Dark, as King navigates this complex world in his new role.Stay tuned for more updates, and thanks for joining me on this journey!

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It's here!

The Spectral Detective Series: The Prequel | https://storyoriginapp.com/giveaways/a0dcf184-b67c-11f0-a2c6-a7f58b8bdacc

April 1945.As the Third Reich crumbles, a covert Allied team is sent deep into the Thuringian mountains on a mission that doesn’t officially exist. Their orders: infiltrate a medieval castle seized by the SS and recover a relic hidden within its ancient vaults — an artefact whispered to defy reason.Captain Arthur King, a soldier turned investigator, leads a handful of specialists into the heart of the fortress. With him is Maggie Clarke, a young codebreaker whose wartime brilliance has drawn her into a world far darker than cipher rooms and typewriters.What begins as a desperate race against time becomes something else entirely — a confrontation with forces buried beneath centuries of war, myth, and secrecy.In the final days of the Second World War, they will uncover that not all of history’s monsters are human.

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Dragons' Shadows | https://storyoriginapp.com/giveaways/d4b48946-536b-11f0-90ee-c317b608b707

Dragons' Shadows: A Prophetess, an Emperor, and an Outcast Clash as a Leviathan Threatens Erock's Fate

In a vibrant antediluvian world teetering on chaos, intertwined destinies unravel ancient prophecies in a gripping fantasy epic.In the wake of ancient prophecies, Dragons' Shadows unfolds a gripping epic of power and peril. A visionary prophetess races to save the fortified city of Erock from a hidden threat, while a crumbling empire’s emperor battles to cement his legacy.In the rugged north, a young outcast rises to lead a struggling clan toward hope.A Leviathan stirs, and their fates intertwine, threatening to plunge a vibrant world into chaos. Dive into this thrilling fantasy where destiny and danger collide.