A wise man once said, it ain’t over ‘til it’s over. And certainly 2021 felt like it might be over, except it wasn’t over. And it kept on not being over all year long.
At the end of 2020, I made the mistake of saying “nor are we out of it” and it seems that the fates were listening. COVID, lockdown and everything else in this maddening cocktail of intersecting problems around us didn’t slacken its grip throughout 2021, and I found myself pretty much repeating my mantra for the previous year over again – concentrating on taking it day by day, being careful and keeping focus on the thought of better times ahead.
I’m glad to say that while some of my family and friends did get sick over the past year, they’re all still here and they’ve all come through relatively intact, which makes me grateful and appreciative – so thanks NHS, thanks smart and conscientious people, thanks science. Let’s keep that going.
Of course, another year in semi-lockdown looks a lot like business as usual for writers like me, and in that mode I carried on working on a bunch of projects over those twelve months.
Outlaw, the sixth book in the series of my bestselling Marc Dane action thrillers arrived in hardcover right in the middle of the doldrums of this year, but despite that it ticked over just fine and the response to the book was very strong. Outlaw was a real labour of love for me, as it brings together a lot of the story arcs I started laying down with Nomad, the first Marc Dane novel, and pays off some hanging threads with dramatic effect. My previous novels in the series – Ghost and Shadow – also came out in new editions for my North American and Czech readers.
A few people have asked me if Outlaw is the final Marc Dane novel and I’ll reiterate – I have no intention to end Marc’s adventures here!
But that said, he does deserve a holiday, so Marc, Lucy and the Rubicon team will be taking a break – and in their place you’ll be seeing an all new, original stand-alone crime thriller novel from me – more of which I will reveal in the coming months. There’s also something else bubbling away with regard to Marc’s future adventures, but right now I can’t say more…
Star Trek was also a key component of my new releases in 2021, with The Dark Veil, a tie-in novel to the Star Trek: Picard TV series arriving at the start of the year and The Ashes of Tomorrow, the middle book of the epic, universe-shattering Coda trilogy, coming a few months later. I also got to pen a short story for the Enterprise era Trek in the new Star Trek Explorer magazine, which I hope to write for again in 2022.
Elsewhere, the videogames Fracked and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy hit stores – both of which I did a little story work on, just keeping my hand in the games game over the past few months. Guardians also won a major award for its narrative, which I’m proud I could contribute to.
Into 2022, more cool stuff is coming – I can’t wait for fans of the Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell franchise to see Firewall, my new original novel featuring the iconic Sam Fisher in a brand new adventure – and there’s my aforementioned stand-alone thriller in the offing too.
So looking ahead, I’ll wrap up with I said last year – because it’s still valid advice now – stay safe, stay well, and stay positive.
