All Souls Lost

  • One week until ALL SOULS LOST

    All Souls Lost

    The leaves are changing, the pumpkin spice is flowing, and hard as it is to believe, there’s just a week left until All Souls Lost is out. It’s always a little bittersweet when, after years of working on a project, you reach the moment when it’s no longer just a story that lives in your head, but one that’s out there in the world, subject to all the slings and arrows1 that might get thrown its way. Fly, little story! Be free! Watch out for that hawk!

    Anyway, as we count down the days, I had a couple of tidbits I wanted to throw your way. (Readers of my newsletter will know most of this already, which is a good reason that you should subscribe right now.)

    Paper, please

    Electronic books aren’t everybody’s thing, I get it. There’s something about wood pulp that’s just more aromatic than, uh, electrons. Well, good news: All Souls Lost will be available in print! However, the print copy won’t be on sale until release day (next Tuesday), and it will be available exclusively from Amazon. I know that may disappoint some folks who were interested in getting a signed copy, but or now you’ll have to track me down at a public event if you want your copy autographed. (I’ll also have to see about getting some more appropriate bookplates.)

    Now hear this

    Audiobook fans can also rest easy: there will be a version of All Souls Lost piped directly into your ears. It’s narrated by the excellent Mirron Willis and you can currently preorder it in a few places, including Apple Books and Barnes & Noble. And yes, it should be available on other services, including Audible, hopefully in the near future—I’ve still got my fingers crossed that will be the same time as the print and ebook versions, but I unfortunately can’t guarantee it as some details are still being worked out.

    All Souls Lost: The Soundtrack

    Weirdly, I’ve been writing more in silence lately, but in the past I’ve usually put on movie scores for some background music: much of the Galactic Cold War series owes its inspiration to the likes of Daft Punk’s TRON: Legacy album, the many and varied Mission: Impossible scores, and of course the voluminous oeuvre of John Williams.

    But something about the feel and tone of All Souls Lost called out for something a little different. So allow me to present, for your enjoyment, a (slightly whittled down) version of the playlist I built while working on this novel. It’s a bit eclectic2, like much of my musical taste, but if you want to whet your appetite for the book, you could do worse than putting this on. I’ve embedded the Spotify version below, but it’s also on Apple Music if you’re so inclined.

    I do wish these services would let me annotate the tracks with my own notes about which scenes they go with, but perhaps that’s a project for a little later this fall, once the book is out.

    Anyway, just keep it on repeat until next week, and you’ll be fine. And don’t forget to tell your friends, relatives, and local bus driver to preorder All Souls Lost—it’s the perfect read for spooky season.


    1. Or one-star reviews.

    2. A polite of saying “what is wrong with you?”

  • All Souls Lost, a brand new novel, coming this October

    All Souls Lost cover cropI’m going to give myself a finally on this one.

    Back in the summer of 2014, I was still working full-time as an editor at Macworld and I hadn’t yet sold my first novel, but having written the first two Galactic Cold War books, I felt like I needed to take a break, cleanse my palate with something totally different. So inspired by my love of classic hardboiled detectives and the supernatural mysteries of Mike Carey and Ben Aaronovitch, I set out to write a quick little story about a spiritual consultant who works out of an office in the city of Somerville, Massachusetts (where I happen to live). I figured I could dash it off and sock it away to sell after my sci-fi series took off.

    Not unlike my debut novel, it ended up taking way longer than I expected. I actually teased the book in a blog post seven years ago called “Finishing Things”1 and I think I mentioned it in my newsletter once or twice.

    Still, persistence is the better part of valor, or something like that, and now, after nine years, I’m delighted to announce that All Souls Lost is coming out at last, thanks to the tireless effort of the team at JABberwocky Literary Agency. You can check out the full cover and an excerpt over at FanFiAddict for a taste of the book, but here’s a quick description for you:

    Say hello to Mike Lucifer, Spiritual Consultant. He’s back in town to take care of business. Unfortunately, when business is good, things must be very, very bad.
     
    After two years trying to run away from his past, Mike Lucifer’s back in his office less than ten minutes when a persistent young woman shows up asking for help: her boyfriend’s been possessed by a demon.
     
    That’s exactly the kind of mess that drove him from his hometown of Boston to a sunny beach—and the bottom of a bottle—in the first place. But there are some problems that even booze can’t drown, and while Lucifer may be no hero, his dwindling bank account provides a thousand reasons to take the case.
     
    No sooner is he back in the game then the complications and corpses start to add up. The boyfriend’s not possessed—he’s dead. The tech company where he worked is looking shadier by the second. And Lucifer’s client definitely knows more than she should…about everything. The deeper Lucifer digs, the more he wonders if whatever sinister entity lurks behind this case wants him to be the last to die…

    I know authors are supposed to love all their books equally, but I admit to this novel having a special place in my heart. It’s spooky, funny, and even has a little bit of heart baked into it—plus it’s literally close to home. I’m so glad that I finally have a chance to share it with all of you, so I hope you’ll check out Mike Lucifer’s first(?) adventure.

    All Souls Lost will be available on October 17 as an ebook and (fingers crossed) the audiobook should arrive at the same time. You can preorder the ebook today from all the usual suspects; audiobook preorders will be at a later date.


    1. Ha ha. Good one, past me.