Yes, this post is over a fortnight late. Nope, I cannot bring myself to care.

Well, the moment has come. As you will have probably seen from my Instagram and abominable TikToks, both eBookles and Paperbackles are now available to buy on Amazon, one for predictably less money than the other.

And yes, I am supremely proud of those portmanteaus (portmanteaux?), so they will be here to stay.

But shit. Here we are. The Saga of Majesty has officially begun… knowing who I am as a person, whether it will get finished (or even continued) remains to be seen.

I’ve already shared my thoughts on this not-so-momentous occasion a few times on my socials, but I thought I’d collect them here for posterity. If any of you actually buy a copy, you can read a more elaborative, less-condensed version of this in the very wanky, very self-indulgent Author’s Note I added at the end of the novel (a perk of the self-publisher’s craft – there’s no-one to stop you doing flamboyant things like that).

i) Book Beaver have outdone themselves, yet again, with another slam-dunk of a book cover, which is as beautiful as it is simple. After 3ish years of staring at the cover for Legion, this one’s now my desktop wallpaper, my cover photos, and stares malevolently at me from my bookshelf.

ii) John Rickards has outdone himself, yet again, with his editorial feedback (chiefly pebbling over the fact that I, very obviously, don’t know a thing about seacraft or sailing, as well as fishing out about a million unnecessary commas from the early draft). This time round he also gave me a massive help with the tedious, rage-inducing ordeal of advanced formatting, and as a result the interior of the novel looks so much cleaner and more polished than Legion did.

iii) Greek mythology, I’ve found, is a far easier medium to write stories in than Ancient Rome. I don’t know if that is just because I know way more about the former than the latter, or some other nefarious reason.

iv) This novel was, somehow, the easiest thing I’ve ever had to write, but was still somehow incredibly difficult and mind-boggling at times.

v) Self-publishing is fun, because you get to have as much (or as little) control as you want, over every last fucking thing about the process.

vi) Self-publishing is soul-destroying, as well as heinously expensive if done properly, and no matter how familiar the path is to you, every last bit will be more difficult, and time-consuming, than you believe.

vii) When I started writing this, I envisaged it to be the first in a trilogy about Herakles and his exploits. Now I’ve finished it, however, I’m almost certain that Herakles will not be seen again at all, and that the next two volumes will focus on two different characters.

viii) I’m disappointed that this novel didn’t make the jump to be traditionally published, as while I have a fair few more ideas on the backburner, I honestly don’t think I’m going to write anything as objectively good (or, frankly, as market-friendly) as this ever again.

ix) This has honestly been my favourite thing to write, ever, and was such a joy pouring onto paper. If you ever read just one of my thingamajigs, let it be this one.

Like most projects during its inception, Herakles has also somehow filled a great deal of my camera roll too, so I thought I’d share a few snaps from over the last 18 months.

From jotting down shorthand notes for Act III in the Oxford sunshine…

…To finishing an early draft in the British Library, on a miserable sleety day in September.

My unbridled glee at a draft actually finishing with a sensible wordcount (after axing about 13,000 words of chaff, admittedly).

It turns out, you can buy aesthetically-pleasing lever-arch files online and customise their names. Though admittedly now I’m not sure what I’m ever going to use this for again. Thanks, KleverCase.

Lorna Lee (of @unexpectedlearningjourney fame) displaying some Spartan-style laconicism upon reading the very first page (fun fact: Lorna was in fact the first person to read the novel top to bottom).

Finally, Mark Knowles (of Blades of Bronze fame) left a very kind review for me on Goodreads, which was an unexpected surprise. As anyone who peruses this genre will know, Mark’s recent trilogy reimagines the Jason and the Argonauts story in a very different, altogether more historically and archaeologically feasible fashion. Crucially, Mark has actually sailed on a replica of the Argo herself, on a trail that (more or less) follows the route the original Argonauts might have taken on their quest. Consequently, he actually knows a great deal about Bronze Age sailing, something that is glaringly evident from even a cursory read of his series. By contrast, I myself know very little, and blagged it at great length by having my Argo made of magical wood, with an animal will of its own, and oars that more often than not work by themselves. Mr Knowles, as I’ve discovered over the last year or so via Twitter DMs, is also a very insightful and charming fella.

And there we have it.

I still have a few more practical things to do – given how the novel changed title halfway through, I’ve got to go through my archive and ditch the old tags of Shadow of the Prow, and I need to actually update the pages of this website to reflect that I’ve published a new novel – but for me, this week has been very much the end.

I’ve got a few ideas for what’s next churning; at the moment, Ajax is grabbing me by the shoulder. As well as another secret project that could actually come to fruition in not too long at all.

But for the minute at least, I’m giving the writing muscles a rest.

Thank you very much to anyone who’s bought Herakles already. I’m really looking forward to sharing it.