House move + coronavirus = Portsrood

My new book will be launching very soon – if you’d like me to contact you when it’s live, please do get in touch. I thought it might be interesting to give some context around why Escape From Portsrood Forest got written now.

The Entram trilogy is waiting for its third book, and when New Gaia launched just before Christmas, the intention I’d laid out for myself was for the finale to be out by Easter. The plan and much of the content was already written – this was perfectly possible – but I found myself suddenly in the midst of a stressful house move.

My ability to write seemed to go out of the window. I wasn’t enjoying the writing, and it was taking me a long time to make any progress. So I gave myself a break and delayed it. Part of me is sorry I did that, but most of me I think is grateful that it will be much better when it gets there, hopefully later on this year.

The house move eventually finished and I started to pick Entram back up, but the coronavirus pandemic had hit the UK with full force at that point. I found it difficult to write about a futuristic dystopia when I felt like we were living through one.

And so I thought I’d just do something silly as a creative outlet. I threw together a short story about an Arthurian knight with a hangover, trying to find his stuff in an enchanted forest. It only took me a day or two, and I immediately thought this would be fun as a gamebook.

And I’m happy to say that I am really excited about sharing this one! I think the challenge level is the best I’ve managed so far, the story is interesting with a good level of humour in the background, and it’s non-linear at its heart, which offers a very fun reading experience…mapping will be needed.