Hunter's Game

Last year, I had a lot of false starts and dead ends in the novel-writing game, but I did manage to finish one book.

It was a new departure for me: my first tie-in novel, written for Rebellion’s Sniper Elite Worlds series. And in some ways, it was just what the doctor ordered: never underestimate the power of a cash advance, with the balance payable on delivery, to motivate you into completing a story – or finding one you want to tell in a submission brief. It also got me out of my comfort zone, to tackle a type of story I wouldn’t normally write.

It’s called Hunter’s Game, and is set in the last days of the American Civil War. Originally Rebellion were talking about bringing it out in 2027. Normally there’s a very tight timescale on tie-in stuff, which is why they tend to look for authors who can turn stuff around quickly, but at a guess, with this being my first time, they wanted to leave plenty of room to fix things if I handed in a complete mess.

I guess I didn’t, anyway, because it comes out next month.

Hunter’s Game will be released on 4^th June, and for those of you based in North-West England, there will be a book launch at Write Blend in Waterloo, Liverpool, on Friday 5^th June.

Who will win Hunter's Game?

1865, Texas. The American Civil War is over but a final pocket of defiance remains. Despite the recent surrender of General Lee, a secret plan is hatched for the Texan insurgents to receive a last shipment of deadly munitions that could spell ruin for the Union forces facing them.

Major Sparanero, of the Union, uses one of his undercover agents to discover that the weapons are being sent by train. There will only be one chance to prevent the munitions being put into the field – as the train crosses the fragile bridge over Tophet Gorge. Before his capture the undercover agent sets a bomb beneath the train and marks it for a sharpshooter.

Hunter – a disillusioned deserter – is the only one skilled enough to make that shot. Bribed by Sparanero to return one final time, Hunter is charged with destroying the train. But an enemy colonel with whom Hunter has history discovers the mission, and so begins a deadly game of hide and seek…

 

 

 

Angels and Namings

Well, Angels Of The Silences appears to be out and about at last! My author's copies are shipping (not that ships are likely to be involved, unless there's worse flooding in Wales than I thought) from Pendragon Press down in Maesteg, so if you've ordered a copy, you ought to be getting a mailboxful of salty Bestwick goodness this week. Um, that sounded wrong, didn't it? Sorry.

And yes, there's the new novel, currently underway, which is to be published by Solaris Books. The reason the last blog posting was rather bashful about it is very simple- not modesty on my part (stop laughing at the back there) but because, well, embarrassingly...

...I have no idea what it's going to be called.

Which does not mean, for the record, that I'm helplessly waiting for a crowd of marketing bods from the publishers to decide what the title should be based on pie-charts, statistics and god alone knows what else. Thankfully, Solaris don't have much truck with that kind of daftness. They know their business onions, obviously- and thank goodness for that- but first and foremost they're actually interested in books- you know, those papery things what you read.

The problem is I don't have a title, and this is now getting silly.

All I can do at the minute is keep plugging away and hope that something leaps out at me. I suspect when I do find the right title, I'll immediately slap myself on the forehead and wonder how I missed it. Hope so, anyway.

Because, of course, I can't keep the publisher waiting all bloody year to know what they're going to advertise the damned thing as. 'This new book by Simon Bestwick' doesn't exactly trip off the tongue.

Ah well. In a pinch, I can always rename the main character 'Katie' and insist the book's about the emotional cost of her survival in the face of the events that unfold. Then they can call it Katie's Price. If they print the 's' in very, very small font it should shift millions of copies.