Get Ready UK: I'm Hitting the Road 🇬🇧

 

Announcing the SPELLMONGER UK TOUR!  That’s right—I’m finally headed to the UK!   Right now, it looks like I’ll be in Southampton, England around Aug 4th-6th, then in the tiny town of Newton Stewart, Scotland on the 8th, Glasgow on the 9th-11th for WorldCon, thence to Edinburgh for a few days of castle tours, a one-night stop in York to see the medieval city center, and on to London for the conclusion of our trip around the 17th and 18th.  While I don’t have any specific promotional stops to announce yet (check FB for updates) and I’ll be traveling light, I am hoping to make myself available for fans along the way.  I’m hoping to have books to sign in London (thanks, Dave!), but I’m uncertain if I’ll have any before that. So, if you want to meet up with me and tempt me into dropping spoilers or just want a pint and a chat, that’s my itinerary.  I’ve tried to keep it fairly loose (except for the flurry of guided tours in Edinburgh) so that I have the flexibility to meet up with fans along the way.  If you are in my path or near enough to want to meet me and get me to sign your book, let me know on FB and I’ll see what I can do about arranging it.   Of course the difficulty with going to the UK is narrowing down what pilgrimages I want to do.  Do I want to see Sherwood Forest?  Stratford-upon-Avon?  Tolkien country?  Oxford? The Hogwarts castle? A hundred other sites of literary or historical import?   After much consideration, I think I’m going to start with a few medieval sites in Southampton, then spend a day at Stonehenge and Old Sarum (religious pilgrimage), catch a few sites in Glasgow, and then explore Edinburgh’s historical offerings.  York has one of the most intact medieval city centers in Britain, as well as the iconic York Castle.  And once I get to London, I’ll be touring the Tower, the British Museum, a couple of medieval manors, and sundry other sites.  Even that is a lot to cram into a two-week trip. It's only a tithe of my bucket list for the UK, but that just means I’ll have to return in the future.  I’m terribly excited about it, too.  This has been a lifelong dream of mine.  To top it off, my wife and I will be traveling to Britain by the Queen Mary II, the famous Cunard transatlantic cruise liner.  There are three reasons for this: I have the time, I hate flying, and when I look at the cost comparison it’s actually quite competitive—basically eight days in a floating luxury hotel.  That will give me some time to write, relax, and prepare for the whirlwind UK tour.  It promises to be a throwback to an earlier era; a more civilized age when this was the standard means of crossing the Atlantic.  The Cunard line is the last scheduled regular transatlantic crossing left.  I’m particularly excited for the Art Deco styling—I’m a sucker for Art Deco. All of this is, of course, to help promote Practical Adept (preorder it on audiobook here!), which releases September 23rd.  This is a book I’m excited about for a number of reasons, and I think the fans will enjoy it even without hordes of goblins or dragons involved.  Fantasy is a big genre, after all, and magic works just as well in subtropical climes as it does in temperate ones.  And while it’s a bit of a departure from the usual setting, it’s filled with Spellmongery goodness. Of course, one of the big things I’ll be doing in the UK is attending WorldCon in Glasgow for the first time.  This is the grandaddy of fantasy conventions, where the members get to vote on the Hugo Awards.  I will only be attending, not participating in panels or discussions.  And apparently I’m not alone.  Word on the street is that George R.R. Martin will also be attending, but because he didn’t fill out the right form he won’t be doing any panels.  So you’ll likely find us both in the vicinity of the bar, talking shop. My family and I will be there only on Friday and Saturday (we’re skipping the opening and closing because our time in the UK is limited and—let’s face it—the first and last day of a con can be boring.  But if you’re there, I’ll be there too, and I’ll be happy to sign books, talk Spellmonger, and take photos.  I likely won’t have any of my own copies (luggage weights are limited for travel, and books are heavy!), but if you bring your own, I’ll be happy to sign them.   I’m also planning on making myself available in Edinburgh, London, and the Scottish village of Newton Stewart, where I will be visiting on August 8th.  Heck, if you can flag me down on any leg of my trip, I’ll do my best to meet up with you for a bit.  I’ll keep people posted via Facebook and the Discord server. Lastly, one of my other compelling reasons to travel to the UK is to meet in person one of my superfans, David Ramsay, who is responsible for keeping the Spellmonger Wiki page up and running and periodically updated.  David is amazing, a tireless volunteer who probably remembers more about Calidore than I do. He has been instrumental in proofing the forthcoming FRP game and has frequently pointed out inconsistencies, discrepancies, and errors in the texts.  He is one of my favorite beta readers, as well as being a genuinely nice and decent human being.  His insights and comments on Practical Adept were gloriously helpful.  If I was doing nothing else in Britain, I would insist on taking the man out to dinner in appreciation for his devotion and service to the fandom and the series.   Now, to whet your appetite, here’s the cover blurb for Practical Adept:

“Beware the Dusky Maidens of Farise!” After facing war, death, and unruly gods and unmitigated evil, Minalan the Spellmonger is forced to return to Farise, the site of his earliest battles, with the simple assignment to conquer the subtropical city-state and expel the pirates that plague the kingdom’s shipping.  Tired of warfare, Minalan embarks on a clandestine campaign to do so, assuming an alias and setting up shop in Farise as a mere Practical Adept as cover for his operation.  Recruiting a cadre of Talented agents to assist, he reluctantly begins the task of infiltrating and observing Farisian society and its corrupt, ramshackle regime of pirates and rebels with the goal of subverting it. But it’s not easy: the Farisians are a strange and stubborn people whose customs and history are at odds with Minalan’s feudal sensibilities.  The popular sailor’s warning to “beware the dusky maidens of Farise” becomes all too apt as he secretly plots to seize the remote remnant of the Magocracy.  The ancient underground organization known as the Contramara seem to be behind every plot and scheme, and unseen masters control the city like puppeteers in the Farisian marketplace.  Assassination, kidnapping, extortion, betrayal, and bribery are the rule of the day as different power blocs play the Game of Whispers with costumed gangs in the streets and daggers in the salons.  It doesn’t take a wizard to realize that revolution is in the air and things are at a breaking point.   Minalan must struggle with the ghosts of his past as he tries to navigate an uncertain future in the hot, storm-tossed land he once occupied.  Legacies from his days in the occupation army fifteen years before return to haunt him and complicate his mission while he keeps up the pretense of being a simple, self-promoting Practical Adept, selling his spellwork like any other artisan.  But when one of the infamous dusky maidens of Farise stumbles across this mission with an old, one-eyed wizard, things start to get complicated.   In a journey that takes him from ancient ruins to hidden temples to the sewers of Farise to the spire of the Doge’s Citadel, Minalan undertakes an adventure unlike any he’s faced before.  New allies and shifting politics propel him to question his own past, his motives, and his very identity as he realizes the sinister truth in another old saying: “Nothing is as it seems in Farise.”  For there is a new, unknown power working behind the scenes, one even older and more determined than the Contramara to control the chaotic city and determine its fate.  And all that stands in its way is one resolute Practical Adept!

Preorder Practical Adept

That’s all!  See you on the sceptered isle! Terry