For 9 of the last 12 years I've said: "It has been a very good 20** all told!".
2020 & 2021 & 2022... hmmm ... Not so much. My books have done fine, but I've spent the sizeable majority of December in hospital with my youngest daughter which is never much fun. She decided that things like breathing and maintaining a measureable body temperature weren't for her. She's been improving slowly though and we hope to be out of here before Chrismas day. In a touching move a group on my Patreon discord clubbed together and sent a care package for me and Celyn, thoughtfully including gifts for my wife, cat, and dog too!
This post follows up from similar posts at the same time in 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012 and 2011 I record a year of ups and less ups. I take a minute to do the sums and raid the scrapbook.
I've now had my Patreon for more than a year and it has been great fun so far. It's a platform that allows readers to support authors directly and encourages more exchange. I've done loads of chapter critques, sent out 50+ signed books as prizes, tuckerised a bunch of people. We have a Discord that gets a lot of chat, and each Patreon tier comes with perks, which can be anything from book plates, and free stories, to free signed books and writing consults. I currently have 113 patrons - many thanks!
Since King of Thorns turned 10 this year, I'll be doing a smidgen of looking in the rear view mirror.
The Girl And The Moon came out in 2022, finishing the Book of the Ice trilogy, and reaching out to connect to all my other work so far.
10th anniversary editions of King of Thorns are available for pre-order!
They're signed & numbered.
In the US you can order a leather-bound deluxe copy with internal art from original cover artist Jason Chan. An object of beauty!
Lies, damn lies, and statistics to follow:
Goodreads severely mucked about with ratings numbers on Prince of Thorns and Red Sister in 2022 (possibly other books). There was a year PoT got a weird bump, which GR attributed to "flushing the buffers". It really is a befuddlingly badly coded site. I suspect the disapperance of 1000s of ratings was somehow linked to that event. A correction of a correction perhaps? In any event Red Sister now has FEWER ratings than it did this time last year, having gone up ~8,000 the year before...
The blog is bumping along around 1,000 hits a day - which isn't terrible - and passed 4 million in total in 2022.
Join my Patreon.
