So. 2020, huh? Where to start…?
Truth is, there’s doubtless loads of people out there much smarter and more erudite than me talking about the wider impact of this Year Of Hell. I could go on and on about what vexed me (and believe me, there’s a lot) during this chaotic period, but as I sit and write this at the start of 2021, all I can feel right now is a sense of “thank f**k I made it through that alive” and a whole lot of “nor are we out of it”.
I’m grateful that my friends and family have, for the most part, endured whole and safe, and I’m well aware that others haven’t been so lucky. But we’ve still got a hard road ahead to get though the challenges of this New Year, so I’m concentrating on taking it day by day, and keeping focus on the thought of better times to come.
2020 equalled Lockdown for a lot of us, but for me it wasn’t a big dynamic shift. Writers tend to work from home, so for once the rest of the world got a taste of what it’s like for us! I’ve been WFH’ing since the late 1990’s, so I managed the transition okay, even though I did deeply miss the regular in-real-life connections with my loved ones.
Among the projects I brought to completion in this year was Rogue, the fifth book in my bestselling Marc Dane action thriller series, which featured a refresh of the cover art style and made a big hit on the sales charts – so thanks to everyone who grabbed a copy of the hardcover, eBook and audiobook editions! Schedule changes mean that the paperback edition was pushed into 2021, so look for more about that in the coming months. Meanwhile, the second Marc Dane novel Exile hit paperback in the USA and hardcover in The Netherlands, while Marc’s third adventure Ghost was released in the USA and Germany.
I also had a couple of “Achievement Unlocked” moments in 2020; I did my first collaborative writing gig with my colleague Josh Reynolds on the thriller novel Day Zero, based on the videogame Watch Dogs Legion – and I had a good time on the project, working up a cool prequel story set in a near-future version of my hometown of London; and Phantom Covert Ops was released, a stealth-action title for the Oculus platform and my first time writing narrative for a true virtual reality game.
As we move into 2021, my next project out in the wild will be The Dark Veil, a tie-in novel to the Star Trek: Picard TV series, and I’m really looking forward to seeing the reader response to that.
Further out, you can expect to hear about some cool new fiction projects (including one based on a franchise I’ve been a fan of for many years) and the reveal for what comes next for the Marc Dane series.
Stay safe, stay well, and stay positive!
