Meet the characters of The Last Quarrel

The new series, which will be released in three eBooks but each one in five parts through Momentum Books, starts coming out early next year.
I've given you a little taster of the story, now meet some of the characters ...

Fallon: He's been a village sergeant for more years than he cares to remember but has always dreamed of something more, and of being a hero. He knows that time is slipping away now and when fate finally gives him a chance, he leaps at it - without bothering to look where he's going...

Bridgit: Fallon's wife, she has been deeply scarred by all the children they have lost over the years. Beset by fears, constantly worrying about their one boy, Kerrin, she sees dangers everywhere. She only wants the quiet life but will find herself responsible for the lives of many, not just one ...

Kerrin: Their son, protected and pampered for all his life. He is about to be exposed to a real nightmare and given the responsibility of saving not just his parents but perhaps the entire lands ...

Prince Cavan: The Crown prince of Gaelland, forced to be the public face of the throne to cover for his father and brother. He knows it is not witches snatching children from the streets but getting anyone to believe even a prince of the realm seems impossible...

Prince Swane: Despised and maligned, yet strangely becoming far better looking. Cavan suspects he is behind the troubles plaguing Gaelland, or is it perhaps his mysterious hooded guest...?

King Aidan: Unpredictable, violent, prone to rage and yet also utterly charming. What role does he have to play in Gaelland's struggles?

Prince Kemal: The Crown Prince of the Kotterman Empire. This vast, sprawling confederation of lands is greatly admired by the Gaellish. But do they have something to do with the evil stalking the streets and counties?

Duchess Dina: When her husband's ship sails into Fallon's village, completely deserted and without even a sign of a fight, she wants to know what happened. But while she is willing to help Fallon, it has to be done her way. Or else.

The new series teaser

So, if you read the last post, you will know that my new series will be published by Momentum (Pan Macmillan) as an eBook, with a worldwide release, with each book split into five parts.
But, you may well ask, what is the book about?
Firstly, it is set in the same world as the first two series, but a completely different set of lands. Time-wise, it is set before the events of the Dragon Sword Histories and there is no real link to either of the previous series, so obviously you don't have to have read them
Here's a little teaser, with more to come on some of the characters, later ...

Gaelland is a land gripped by fear. In the country, fishing boats return with their crews mysteriously vanished, while farms are left empty, their owners gone into the night, meals still on the table. In the cities, children disappear from the streets or even out of their own beds. The King tells his people that it is the work of selkies - mythical creatures who can turn from seals into men and back again - and witches. But no matter how many women he burns at the stake, the children are still being taken.   

Fallon is a man who has always dreamed of being a hero. His wife Bridgit just wants to live in peace and quiet, and to escape the tragedies that have filled her life. His greatest wish and her worst nightmare are about to collide.

When an empty ship sails into their village, he begins to follow the trail towards the truth behind the evil stalking their land. But it is a journey that will take them both into a dark, dark place and nobody can tell them where it might end ...

 

And yes, you will see the return of the Fearpriests in this ...!

 

The Last Quarrel

Apologies for the delay in posting lately but I finally have some good news - I have signed contracts for the new series, The Last Quarrel, with Momentum, the online publishing arm of Pan Macmillan.
After months of uncertainty, I can't tell you what a relief it is to have a way forward again.
So what does that mean and how does it all work?
Let me take you through it ...
So, despite the success of my February-March tour for Wall Of Spears, HarperCollins Australia only offered me an eBook deal for my proposed new series.
After talking it over with my agent, we decided to instead speak to Pan Macmillan's eBook arm, Momentum, which has been achieving fantastic results with its eBook sales.
I'm delighted to say they will be taking on the new series and this will be a worldwide eBook release, not just Australia-NZ, as has been the case with the first two series.
Momentum also does things a little differently.
Instead of the book being released at $13 or $16 as an eBook, each of the new trilogy will be released in five parts, each of about 120 pages or 35,000 words.
So The Last Quarrel Part I will be out early next year (actual date to follow soon), then Part II will be out exactly a month later, Part III a month after that and so on and so forth. A month after Part V is released, you will be able to purchase the omnibus edition - the entire book as one.
As far as pricing goes, it will be much sharper than the previous pricing of my other two series.
Part I will be FREE and the subsequent parts will be a minimal cost, around the $1.99 mark, but will go up and down due to demand. You should be able to purchase the entire book for $10.
Momentum will also offer The Last Quarrel as print-on-demand. This may be available at the same time as the omnibus edition, or even earlier. And these are "bookstore quality" POD books as well, they don't look like self-published books.
Now, if the eBooks sell as well as we hope, then Pan Macmillan has the option of a full print run.
So who knows how that will go ...
One thing though - it will means the end of my grand tours, certainly in the short term. I may look to concentrate on conventions, or do some limited touring with print products - I am yet to decide.
But rest assured I'll be getting out and about somehow!
Anyway, that's the story and I do hope you will come along for the ride.
Next time, I need to tell you a little bit about the new series ...

Empire Of Bones now available in America as an eBook

I didn't realise this until recently but the Empire Of Bones series was unavailable in any format in the United States.
But in the last week, it's now been opened up as an eBook and may well be available in trade paperback format later through the HarperCollins 360 program, which means you won't be able to walk into a shop and buy it but you can order it online and a real copy will be posted to you from America, not from Australia.
Meanwhile, the entire Empire Of Bones series, Bridge Of Swords, Valley Of Shields and Wall Of Spears, is now available as an eBook, in all formats, in America.
With so many thousands of page views on this blog from the US, it certainly made sense!
And, of course, if there is plenty of interest, there's always the possibility of a full American release.
So, please, pass the word!

Divergent the movie - lessons for writers

So I took my daughter to see Divergent at the movies.
You may have already read why I think dystopia is a much better genre for teenage girls to be reading than vampire fluff and I can say, having read the book and watched the movie, nothing has changed my mind there!
This is not a movie review by the way, although it will contain some spoilers ... rather it's a case of how I felt the movie-makers fell into a couple of classic writing traps.
Discussing the movie versus the book with my daughter, it got me thinking about how easy it would have been to take the movie to the next level.
The movie was pretty good and in fact I think handled some aspects of the story better than the book.
For instance, the battle to capture the flag was a great deal more intense and exciting than the book. Likewise the sequences where Tris has to get through her fear simulations in front of the Dauntless leadership made much more sense in the movie. In the book, she does display Divergent tendencies in her simulations - which would surely see her dragged off and killed, about 2 books too early. The way the movie handles it makes much more sense.
But where the movie falls down is its emphasis on external action over internal action. It may be that a Director's Cut of Divergent comes out, which will fix those issues. But the cinematic edition was flawed.
Take, for instance, Al's suicide. In the book, Tris is rightly devastated because, when Al was at his lowest, when he was struggling to come to terms with fighting and hurting other people, she rejected his advances. She blames herself.
None of that made it into the film, so you don't feel the same towards Al's death. After all, he tried to kill her - why does he deserve our sympathy?
Likewise when she is forced to kill a mind-controlled Will. In the book, Will's friendship has helped her survive training and protected her when Peter and his cronies were after her. Plus he is in love with her best friend Christina. Little of that makes it into the film, so you find yourself saying to her - shoot him! He's going to shoot you otherwise! Yet in the book you feel her anguish at being forced into this situation.
The emotional angle, which gives so much more meaning to the action, has been stripped out of the movie.
And that is a classic trap for writers - particularly writers of spec fiction. Never discount the emotional angle and remember that action should have an effect on characters' relationships, as well as everything else. It just makes the effect on the reader all the more powerful.

The Daily Telegraph reviews Wall of Spears

The Daily Telegraph fantasy reviewer Janet Hughes gave me 4.5 stars out of 5 this week for Wall Of Spears - here's her review, for those who didn't get Tuesday's Daily Telegraph!

WALL  of Spears is the third and final book in Duncan Lay’s epic Empire Of Bones series. It provides an engaging, action-packed conclusion to this excellent trilogy, deftly combining intrigue and magic with brilliantly realistic battle scenes. The characters are enmeshed in a complex tapestry of honour and love, scheming and betrayal, against the backdrop of an entire culture’s fight for the right to freedom. At the same time, the plot never loses sight of the personal motivations, strengths and weaknesses of each character. Lay has gone from strength to strength in this series, vividly imagining a world of great complexity, where gritty historical reality meets fantasy. -The battle between the two human tribes is complicated not only by the war between human and elf, but by the conflicting desires and romantic entanglements of the major characters. Lovers of fantasy will surely enjoy this final book in the series.

Martil vs Sendatsu in a battle to the death

I was asked many questions while touring around Australia but none got me thinking quite as much as one in Penrith: Who would win in a fight to the death between Martil and Sendatsu?
Martil, of course, is the hero of my first trilogy, the Dragon Sword Histories, while Sendatsu is the hero of the new series, the Empire of Bones.
They are very different but both are the best warriors of their generation.
Now this question actually had me stumped. Apart from living 300 years apart, so they could never meet, I certainly hadn't planned they would ever try to fight to the death!
Then it got me thinking.
Firstly, it depends on which Martil and Sendatsu were to meet.
The Sendatsu from Bridge Of Swords and Valley Of Shields would be defeated by Martil, without a doubt. The Sendatsu from Wall Of Spears, however, would prove a much harder opponent.
Equally, Martil before he met Karia would fight in a different manner. For some time there, he had nothing to live for and truly didn't care if he lived or died. If that Martil was to meet the Sendatsu from the third book of the series, then the outcome really would be in doubt.
If Sendatsu's children, Mai and Cheijun, were at stake, then my money would be on Sendatsu.
Yet if Karia's life was also at stake then the game would change again.
Also, we would have to assume that Martil couldn't use the Dragon Sword, for that would be an impossible advantage.
Equally, Sendatsu wouldn't be able to use even a little magic to help tilt the contest his way.
So, we need to set some ground rules.
Both Mai and Cheijun, and Karia, are at stake. This is the Sendatsu from the end of Wall Of Spears, tempered and hardened by what he has had to do. No armour and no magic to be used.
It is also the Martil from the end of Radiant Child, minus the Dragon Sword and accepting of his dark past.
It is clear to see from the start that Sendatsu's unusual skill gives him the early advantage and Martil has to use all his speed and experience to hold him off. Martil will throw dirt and stones, try to use the sun and the surroundings to put Sendatsu off and get some sort of advantage.
As Martil grows more used to Sendatsu's style of fighting and different sword, the tempo of the fight will change. Martil will try to get closer, to use his shorter swords and cramp up Sendatsu's extravagant strokeplay.
Sendatsu hasn't fought anyone who can improvise the way Martil can and will have to use all his own speed to hold him off.
Sendatsu is used to losing (to his father) and this strengthens him.
Martil has never lost - and this also strengthens him.
It will all come down to one tiny slip or mistake and the other will pounce.
But, remember, their children rest on the other fighter not walking out of the arena.
Neither will let that happen.
I see Martil sacrificing himself to get in the fatal blow. Sendatsu will not be expecting someone to give up their own life like that and won't be able to stop himself from delivering a killer strike - but that has got Martil close enough to use his swords.
Technically neither would win - and neither would lose. Sendatsu will get in the first, fatal blow but Martil will live long enough to say goodbye.
And that's the best answer I can give ...