This page is here to give you an idea of my current expected schedule for releases and what I’m working on currently. Because I work to fairly rapid production rates and because I do start projects which go nowhere, what’s on here is subject to change at more or less no notice.
Most Recent Releases
- Elementary: A scientist from Earth is sucked into a world with magic. An isekai.
- Mask of the Martinet: Tatsu Yamada 3.
- The Man Who Was Never There: A magic school-based fantasy with an interesting world behind it. It’s a working title; may change.
- Disruptive Elements: Elementary 2.
- The Business of War: Death’s Handmaiden 7.
- Gods and Monsters: Death’s Handmaiden 8.
Editing Pipeline
Writing Now
- As yet untitled fantasy/detective story which seems to be what’s next.
Doldrums
- The Journey.
- Unwritten.
On the Drawing Board
Production Purgatory
- The Last Emperor: The second Twilight Empress novel.
Note on categories:
- Just Released: should be obvious.
- Editing Pipeline: has a completed first draft and is awaiting my edits and then proofing. When I have a solid release date, I’ll post it. These books are going to happen.
- Writing Now: is what I am actively working on. These may go into Production Purgatory.
- Doldrums: Sometimes the wind just goes out of my sails and I can’t keep the enthusiasm going, or there’s a lack of faith in the way the plot is going. Books here are likely to be picked up and finished sooner than those in Purgatory.
- Production Purgatory: is like production hell, but not quite as bad. Shadows and Reality Hack both went here and made it out.
- On the Drawing Board: more than just vague ideas, less than something I’m able to write. These are the things which may well happen in the future. (In no specific order, btw.)
Witches and Ray-Guns 
Hi, I just hope you keep writing, I really enjoy the escape time your books give me (even the rare typos and Queens English spellings]. I live within a 30 minute bike ride of Churchton, Deale, North Beach, Shadyside and Edgewater (where you renamed our municiple airport), MD. I have also lived on the North end of the San Francisco Bay so I have some physical connections to all the Ultra books.
I hope you do not move June and Penny out of MD but its looking that way to me; possibly into space for some type of Galatic Alliance of old style Guardians (can we say Green Lantern style? 😉
Would love to see more Thaumatology, Misfits and Zanari!
Scott in Harwood
Scott, were you as amused as I was at the thought of a sub sneaking past Norfolk and staying hidden in water that shallow?
For those not familiar with the area, Chesapeake Bay is mostly broad and shallow. The largest US naval base is near the mouth.
Ben, originally from coastal NC
Everyone always asks about the submarine! 🙂
@Tharcion, it could have been worse. At least you didn’t have them using something the size of the Seaview in less than 20 ft. of water. Hmm, you already used a SID reference in another book, so maybe I should say Skydiver instead of Seaview. 🙂
Seaview was the research submarine thing, right? Ran to two seasons, but they changed most of the cast between seasons. Had Roy Scheider as the captain. Intelligent dolphin swimming in tubes through the ship. I liked that one. It was mildly insane and occasionally educational.
As I recall, they have a Russian submarine (on the surface) arriving in Chesapeake Bay at the end of The Hunt for Red October. Could be wrong, but I’m sure they say that’s where they are.
Obviously, Skydiver was an awesome submarine. Though these days I see it in operation and wonder about the physics of launching a jet fighter off the front of it. And even more wonder at how they put the two back together.
The Seaview was from the movie and subsequent television show Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, circa 1960s. The show with Roy Scheider was Seaquest DSV – late 1990s or early 2000s I don’t recall for sure.
Yikes! That’s going back. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Yeah, I remember. That was the one with the Van Allen Belt catching fire and them nuking it to blast it off into space. 60s sci-fi physics at its most ludicrous.
Edit to add that I’m not quite old enough to have seen that first time around.
Yeah, detailed knowledge of the Van Allen belt was still pretty new when Voyage was made. I liked the flying sub, though. That was cool.
Maybe the next art project could be a fan-fiction crossover, Fox in one of the fishnet Skydiver uniforms. 🙂
Fox is off to Mars next, so a purple bob wig and a silver miniskirt is more likely. 🙂
Given your usual art style, for Mars I would look to the writing of Edgar Rice Burrows for inspiration, though that might suit Lily more than Fox. 🙂
Unfortunately, this Mars doesn’t have enough atmosphere to support naked princesses. Not that Fox actually needs an atmosphere…
The Mars in the Unobtanium series might fit…
Random and apropos of nothing much – I stumbled across an old disco dance video on Facebook, and wondered at one point what historians a couple hundred of years from now would think of it. This led to inevitable thought: What would Ella and Gillian think of it if they found it in Aggy’s copy of the internet?
Re: Seaquest in Chesapeake Bay, can’t be any worse than League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’s trying to get Nemo’s Nautilus through the canals of Venice!!!
John, they would be asking Aneka to interpret/explain/elucidate on the topic, Gilliam would get a THICK research paper out of it, and Aneka would be looking for painkillers due to the killer migraine she would develop. Can you imagine trying to explain disco balls, Saturday Night Fever, Grease, etc to someone from a thousand years into the future NOT really familiar with 20th century pop culture? Gillian and Ella are probably at this point still just scraping the surface of what Aggy kept.
Ah yes, but also consider Ella’s personality. How would Aneka survive Ella going through her ‘disco fever’ phase? The huge bell-bottom jeans. The big hair. Grounds for divorce?
Only you know for sure – she’s your character after all… but I could see Aneka mocking Ella. A lot. Ella would pout. Sex likely happen shortly after the pouting. 😀
It isn’t just 20th century pop culture, but having to elucidate the differences in American culture in the 1950’s vs. the 1970’s, and then having to explain why exactly these cultures were still being emulated in 2018?
I’ve tried to get into the Iranians a couple of times with the first book. It just didn’t catch my interest like your other novels. Would it all to try the last one you put out “True Dark”? I can’t even tell you what makes me give up.
Everyone has heir own tastes.
True Dark is a follow-up to Guardian. If you aren’t into Guardian, True Dark won’t do you much good.
Somehow spell check changed ultrahumans to Iranians…..interesting.
I’m not sure where this might belong, but are there going to be any more audio books? I only find the first Aneka book available.
Honestly, I doubt it. It’s something I’d like to do because I like listening to the Aneka book I did. The problem is that the return on the investment is not encouraging. Making an audiobook is not cheap, so they have to sell quite a lot of copies to make it worth it. Over the time it’s been out, that one may have actually repaid the production costs, but not by much.
Smashwords have actually started an audiobook production service I should look into, but I don’t see a way around the cost problem. I’m more likely to produce more hardcopy books (not costly, but really painful) than I am to make another audiobook.
If I see hardcopy of your books I will most assuredly buy them since I need hardcopy books since I can’t have electronics in my workspace.
There’s also been a downturn in ebook sales in the UK in the last year which is making me think of doing paper versions. However, I know that setting a paper version up is either going to cost me money or involve me spending a lot of time reformatting documents and producing quality PDFs. So, I may give it a try with something, more as a mechanical exercise than a marketing one, in the not too distant future. See how it goes. It shouldn’t be too difficult to get right, I just know it’s going to be annoying and fiddly.
In the words of Tyler Vernon, “I hate fiddly bits”
seems to me that Liberty has been in the editing pipeline for a while now, is that just me being impatient or is it taking long to get hammered out for some reason?
Well, he did say “Halloween” for the timeframe so that leaves 6 days.
Oh alright. Just been periodically swinging by this blog checking. Guess I got a impatient, but it is nice to know it is coming soon. Cheers
FYI. It’s back from proofreading and I’m doing the final edits. Well, I would’ve been doing the final final edits today, but today turned out to be terribly unproductive. Liberty should be out in the next few days, and definitely before Halloween.
GREAT!!!
Fantastic, can’t bear the suspense….
Most awesome
Here’s hopeing it’s today or Sunday as I Am of work 🙂 then I am on for four days with no reading time 😥
Will you be writing any further Misfit Witchcraft?
Yes. There’s one more to come.
Hoping that this is still true even though there is nothing on the backlog about it. Two year! Have mercy please.
How is Fox 10 coming along? Got the impression that it was going to ride in just after Fox 9
Just after is relative. It’ll be out around the middle of February. Then I’ve got a spin-off book (Fox 10.5?) set in Japan to write, and then possibly an anthology book of two or three smaller stories to follow that. However, not wanting to strain my Fox muscles, I’m branching off into military sci-fi before either of those, assuming the idea works, which it is so far.
I have started reading some of your other work, but I started with Misfits – hoping to see a third volume sometime.
That makes two of us. I’d like to see the third part this year. Given it’s January, that’s not an especially near or precise future, but it’s the plan.
Your work in on 2 books atm, blood magic it says what one, but what series is nighthawk?
New one which I’m hoping is going to work out.
Sorry to see that Nighthawk has been relegated, but am very excited to see that you’re working on the next Twilight Empress book. Fingers crossed it works! 🙂
Are you going to continue the Misfits series?
Yes. I’m not sure when, but it will get done. There’s one more book to come.
Hey Niall:
Your “Most Recent Releases” really needs editing, since the top 4 were released last year!!!
Most Recent Releases
The Iron Princess.
Guardian.
True Dark.
Liberty.
PS: Just finished re-reading Iron Princess, anxiously chewing off fingernails awaiting it’s sequel (I realize expecting you to write THAT fast is totally unreasonable – but hey, at least you know people WANT to read your work!!!)
Actually, I updated this last week (or this week, maybe) and I left ‘The Iron Princess’ as the top one on the list because I was writing ‘The Last Emperor’ now.
I totally understand leaving Iron Princess up for that reason, but the rest came out in 2018. Speaking strictly for myself, “Most Recent Releases” generally implies a shorter time-frame than the past year – just saying. Please keep up the great writing!!!
When will you re released the thaumatology books and released the 13th?
Currently, I don’t have an answer to either of those questions. Sorry.
Oooooo! A new Ultrahumans book to follow up The Last Emporer. How Pearlescent! Thanks for the update. 🙂
And a new fox on the drawing board 🙂
Although tbh I like most of them so I like whatever comes next
Today, we can celebrate the fifth anniversary (= half of the contract runtime) of Nisa Harper’s enlistment with XC. I hope there will be a sequel to Reality Hack
So do I, actually.
When is the next book expected ?
(A reading addict that wants his next fix!!!)
The next book is going to be the new Ultrahumans one. I’m expecting it to go out at the end of August/beginning of September. The reason for it taking a while will become apparent when I get my next post organised. Which will be after the jet lag is done with.
I am a long time science fiction fan, and a computer expert (data science). I appreciate the underlying logic of all your universes, including the fantasy. I have just read Thumatolagy end to end for perhaps the third time. I am a big fan of Fox as well. I think your ideas on the possible pattern of emergence of self aware AI are very sound. Yeah – the distant future may be super amazing… But the future just before that will be semi-amazing. Jump someone forward from a hundred years ago and they would see huge change. Jump someone 30 years – a lot is different, but not as much as some would think
Just want to say, i love your books! I think I have re read all of them at least 4 times. Are you planning on releasing any more audiobooks soon? I really enjoyed listening to the audiobook of Steel Beneath the Skin. Either way, I’m looking forward to further releases!
Sorry, no plans for more audiobooks. Dreams, sure. I enjoy listening to that one too. Unfortunately, it’s not really economic to have them made. When that changes, I’d love to do more.
Shame, hopefully someday. Thanks for the quick response!
I hope to see another Misfits book soon
Yay! An update!
Also, apropos of nothing much I learned recently that an American rapper named YNW Melly released a song in 2017 called Murder on my Mind. I tried listening to it and lasted less than 30 seconds. Ironically, Melly is in jail awaiting trial on double first degree murder charges and is a suspect in another case.
With your assessment and my general dislike of rap, I’ll probably not go look for that track.
Yeah I wouldn’t be looking at badly recommended rap either, and it’s nice to see an update.
One question though, deaths handmaiden?
Series? Another new one?
I like most of your stuff so any answers good, just curious what were getting 🙂
Death’s Handmaiden is a new book. Maybe a series. Depends. It’s like ‘The Girl…’ in that respect: we’ll see how it goes. I have ideas for a sequel to ‘The Girl…’ which I may use if it seems like people like it.
DH is an idea I came up with while working on ‘The Girl…’ and I fiddled with it, and I’m going to finish it up and publish it while I’m working out the plot(s) for the next Fox book. The Fox book is going to be an anthology, so there’s a lot of plotting needs to be done. More on that when I’ve got more to tell.
I just finished a re-read of the Thaumatology books and had a small niggling thing come up that bears asking – Why is the stairway to the basement of High Towers unlit?
At any rate, here’s to hoping you have an epiphany and get book 13 figured out at some point. As always, thanks for all the enjoyment your books provide!
I think because the “not-really-secret” door would be visible if there were light behind it.
+1 wishing for another Thaumatology book.
Have you seen “Upload” on Amazon? I hope they pay you license fees for using your ideas.
I haven’t yet. It’s on the (long) list. Unfortunately, I didn’t come up with that idea. It’d be nice if I had though. 🙂
How is that different from Fox’s afterlife?
Just to note: The whole first season is only ten episodes of half an hour each. Just one long evening if you want.
Oh, I didn’t realise they were short episodes. Maybe I’ll get to it sooner.
Uploading isn’t my idea. It’s been around for a while. Unless I watch the show and see wholesale plagiarism, I’m not going to be calling the lawyers.
Thanks for the update here with respect to the book you mentioned in your main page update.
Pretty sure I dropped a link to an older article about the reactionless EmDrive previously. Anyway, here’s a newer one about some testing being done to determine if the things works or only appears to work because of false positives in previous testing. Hope you enjoy it.
https://www.wired.com/story/a-mythical-form-of-space-propulsion-finally-gets-a-real-test/?mbid=social_facebook&utm_brand=wired&utm_campaign=falcon&utm_medium=social&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=facebook
So, not entirely conclusive, but it probably doesn’t work. Well, to be expected, I guess.
I like the newish Deathshandmaiden series revitalised my reading somewhat great stories. Of course I still want more of all my favorite series which seems to be all of them oops.
Been having fun re,re,rereading your ultrahumans series and I have just started book 3 after I just got past the riot. I could not help thinking.
a year or two later there’s trouble at the local prison. Twilight turns up and says “ok, you have two choices. As it’s about to get dark! One we turn the power of and I come in there. Or two, if you go back to your cells we leave the lights on”
😜
Oh, she’d never do something like that… 😛
Don’t know if this is the right place for this, but have you ever given any thought into a Gunwitch sequel? It was a great story and just begs to be the origin story for a series!! Just my opinion, and we all know what those are worth (LOL). But, regardless, thanks for all your hard work and great stories!
Short answer: yes.
Longer answer: Like most, I need to be sure where I’m going and be in the right mood and that hasn’t happened yet.
Thanks for responding! Wish I liked the answer better though (pure greed thinking). But, in truth, though I would hope you are in the mood and inspired to continue with many of your stories, all I truly ask is to keep up the awesome work as there are only a couple of stories that couldn’t catch my interest (as no two people will enjoy all the same things, I am amazed and impressed that you have produced so many stories and series that I have enjoyed for so long). I look forward to your next release (seeing as statistically it has a 95% chance of me loving it) and thank you in advance for all the enjoyment we will have from it!
Question, what thaumatology books have been updated and how?
Are you ever going to write another book in the Misfit series?
Yes. One more. Not sure when.
Hi I really hope to see more of the Deaths Handmaiden books really like them as well as the Tharmatology, Anneka and Fox Books although I fully understand you wrapping up the Fox books. I would love to see a further Gunwitch book (or several).
Keep writing
Hello, do you plan on writing another Zanari book?
I honestly have no idea. I did start one, but it wasn’t working. Only time will tell, I guess.
Thanks for the quick response!
Hi Niall,
Got a question. I’m thinking of re-reading the Thaumatology series. I’ve got the Smashword edition already, but noticed you had listed that some had been updated on Amazon. I was wondering if there are significant changes in these updated versions and which books exactly got the update?
Or in other words… Which book would be worth re-buying?
Gr Cloak
Okay… (1) I should get the Smashwords files updated so you don’t have to rebuy anything.
(2) There’s no difference in plot or general contents. The Thaumatology books never got the proofreading treatment the others did, so I had them worked over and corrected them, and then they sat there waiting for me to have the energy to repost them all. Something came up on Amazon which sort of forced my hand, so Amazon got done.
So, the main changes are quality, not contents.
So, I wouldn’t recommend spending money on them. Not really. (I know I should be mercenary and say ‘buy them all!’ But I’m not.)
I’ll make a note and try to get the Smashwords fixes done soon. There are some other problems on Smashwords that need fixing and they’ve been putting me off, but updating the documents will make the new versions available to those who already buy them…
I’ll try to get them all done next week. (I’d do it this week, but this week is already a bit full.)
Wow! Thanks for the quick reply.
I’ll be keeping my eyes open for the update!
Never new the current version were the ‘Rough’ versions. Would be interesting to spot the improvements.
Gr Cloak
For the “what am I working on” page, could you add a series/description to the “writing now” 3? The titles alone dont really let us know if it’s a long running series or something new
Okay. It shall be done.
When are we likely to see another story in the Fox universe? I just re-read them.
Hannah is such an intriguing character in that she was built as a slave to a very bad man. She chose to defy him and paid for that. Fox has stated several times that she feels for Hannah and we all know what happens when Fox gets an idea in her head.
Get out of the way or get run over!
I hope to see more about Hannah, FEI and all the other wonderful characters you made for that series.
This is… complicated. I have probably two more Fox books planned. You’ll likely see one of them in 2021. Essentially, my mother liked the Fox books and I lost her this year (2020 really has sucked). Right now, I have a little trouble writing them because of this, but I want to get the main plot threads tied up before I retire the series. I will get Hannah, FEI, and Overwatch all wrapped up before I’m done.
As a replacement for Fox, I’m currently writing a new Cyberpunk-based novel which is to be the first of the Tatsu Yamada series. That should be out in the first quarter of 2021 and, hopefully, will have some interesting characters for you to like too.
Have you seen this: https://youtu.be/-92HQA0GcI8?t=434
They already built Fei…
Not quite the same Fei. My Fei’s bigger and looks like a couple of giant lava lamps (sort of).
But that FEI is awesome anyway.
Just saw all the new covers for the Thaumatology books on smashword. Am I the only one you can’t see anything on the covers of “Legacy” and “Eagle’s Shadow”? My monitor is on 90% brightness and still, those two covers are 99% black.
On the other hand the new cover of the “Wedding Bells” is really nice.
They were done in a hurry and I’m not entirely happy with all of them.
The world of Fox Meridian is getting closer. Here’s a video of a skeleton with monofilament muscle fibres
https://cheezburger.com/106414593/muscular-robot-is-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-the-everyman?fbclid=IwAR3RYolwZuW0wqr2pJ2_eQbROunDZSlVmh7GGXyX-3lce3iVqkluGct_qYg
I hope if you decide to do litrpg it is a whole lot better than what is out there. I have yet to finish one mostly because they seem stuck on the mechanics. Table top RPG has all sorts of dice rolls, charts and stuff that can kill the immersion in that world. With computers it is more seamless but still obsessed with numbers.
Life isn’t so neat. You can’t really calculate the odds of beating something except very roughly. Humm, the dude is 6ft 6 inches, 245lbs, body like a wrestler and armed with a very big flaming mace. I have average build and armed with a rock. This either going to hurt, badly, or I get very clever and lucky.
Larry Niven’s “Dream Park” series is more like what I would love to see.
It would really be nice to read something like the Dream Park series 21st-century style. In LitRPG they always can do everything because all is virtual.
PS: I like the “Dark Herbalist” series by Michael Atamanov.
I think an obsession with stats and mechanics is part of the genre these days. It’s all based around computer games where min-maxing is the name of the game and knowing the game backwards is what counts. (Which I hate, btw, and don’t get me started on the fact that a computer ‘role-playing’ game just means it has levels.)
The one thing I have in planning which fits would be more character driven because I don’t really know how to write anything else. If it gets written, we’ll see what happens.
Incidentally, that story was inspired by an anime called BOFURI, though only in that it’s about someone’s adventures in a computer game; the actual plot couldn’t be more different (for once). BOFURI might be something you’d like. There is a fair bit about game mechanics and stats, but only as a springboard for the main character doing something OP and silly (which usually comes as a shock to the developers). Mainly, it’s a bout a group of friends having fun in a game because they can.
I’ve been playing World of Warcraft since it came out in 2004. Doing weird things is a big part of the fun. Kite a world boss halfway across a continent to the capital city, yeah! Not supposed to go there, yup. My best memories are the weird and unconventional things we did. I hated when you would down a boss and the raid leader complained it took two minutes more than last time. Pointing out the reason was the rogue was drunk in real life and puked on his keyboard shorting it out only made things worse. Really happened. The rogue passed out and disconnected. One member had her laptop destroyed mid raid because her boyfriend was horny and wouldn’t wait for her to shutdown.
I hope you do write it. I love your work and will pick it up if it sees the light of days. MMORPGs are a fantastic way for people to meet online and find out that for the most part we are not very different. The last guild I was in was based in New Zealand but had Australians, Americans,Canadians and even a couple of members from Japan and England. I talked a lot with a gal in California who was from Switzerland , sounded like a female Arnie, and could swear fluently in 6 languages. We would all be better talking and playing together.
Would the title of UNO run into problems with the makers of the card game?
Interesting question. Of course, I doubt they’d ever notice, but interesting question.
If it was a trademark of Disney you would have probably received a cease and desist order already. The mouse has an extremely talented spy network. They nailed a hole in the wall bar in my hometown called Mickey’s Mouse Trap. The name alone might not have been enough but the neon mouse did it. The amazing thing was Disney found the place. You had to know where it was to see it.
Just noticed that you don’t say anything about Atlantis here. No second novel planned?
Yes, there’s one planned. Don’t know when it’ll happen.
A completely random question….. But have you ever considered writing a ‘Chose Your Own Adventure’ kind of book?
I just finished reading: I Am Not a Wolf by Daniel James Sheehan and thought it was awesome and was wondering why there aren’t more CYOA style book for adults on the market. For some reason I can imagine that kind of book working for some of your characters.
Gr Cloak
I haven’t. And I could see it driving me totally insane.
The main issue is the production timescales. Producing something like that would require enormous amounts of work making sure that every potential path works. You can look on it as either producing a book everyone will finish in an hour which I would need to charge full price for, or as producing several books and then only being able to charge for one of them.
The reason why that kind of book isn’t more common is partially because it’s considered a bit of a nerdy genre, but also because producing them is a lot of work for the gains.
Guess I can see that. It would be a lot of work for a smaller story. Though personally I’ve always wanted to know all the story-paths, so consequently read all of them. The curiosity kept me going to see all the different outcomes. Suppose I got my moneys worth that way, but there is no denying that it is a bit nerdy.
Thanks for the quick answer.
Gr Cloak
I would imagine that sometimes the author has only one workable plot line. Having an Solo go off with his reward and letting Luke get shot down would put a damper on the original Star Wars.
You see something similar with alternate history. The author has to twist and bend circumstances to get the desired change in history. Sometimes it borders on fantasy rather than alternate history. Getting one plot to makes sense would be a challenge. Writing multiple plots would probably make most authors check themselves into therapy.
As for Alternate History with multiple plots – you might check out the 1632verse. But I agree that for one single author that wouldn’t have been doable.
Fallen has been published by now. Any updates for this page?
Well, the note I have to update this when I publish really failed me this time. 😦
I’d rather you worried more about the writing of novels than blog updates. But that is me.
Well, I spend more time on the novels. Sometimes I need a break, and updating this page is supposed to be part of the ‘marketing’ for the books. Of course, I don’t do much marketing…
Hi, I’ve just re-read Titans, any chance of a sequel in 2022?
Maybe.
I honestly have no idea what’s coming after the next book, which will be the sequel to ‘Sign of the Dragon.’
I have a basic idea about the next Titans book, so it has a chance if I get the details worked out.
Hey any chance we’ll see what Tatsu’s bike looks like on this round?
Well, I don’t have a cover yet, so maybe.