The Story Behind Soulburn
Pre-order your copy now!
My debut novel, The Soulburn Talisman, will be released on May 31, 2024!
🚨 AND it’s available to pre-order right now. 🚨
It’s perfect for older children, teens, and of course, any fantasy fiction-loving adults out there!
The story behind the story
Becoming an author was never my intention.
I started writing The Soulburn Talisman during the first lockdown of 2020. My wife and I were trapped indoors during one of the nicest spells of late spring weather Northern Ireland has ever seen. It was gloriously sunny outside and we couldn’t venture beyond walking distance from our house.
Work was slow. I had time on my hands, so I figured I’d kill some of it by throwing together a quick short story.
Christine and I chatted over some plot ideas and character names. I picked four favourites to be my primary protagonists: Brooke, Dale, Charlie and Willow. Their full names were all nature-themed to match the tone of the story I had in my head. Then I was good to go.
I banged out the first chapter of what would eventually become the first draft of Soulburn in - I think - a couple of sittings. It’d been a long time since I’d attempted to write a story (I produced a couple of novella-length fan-fictions in my teens and wrote a few short stories in university) so those sittings were longer than what’s usual for me now.
I enjoyed writing chapter one, so I moved on to chapter two. And then three, and four, and five. Before I knew it, the “short story” I’d started off writing had begun to mould itself into a full-blown first draft, complete with magic, monsters and the kind of villains I’d always wanted to see in a fantasy novel.
I wrote Soulburn on and off throughout the rest of 2020 and into 2021. Somewhere along the line, I bought the budget laptop I’m tapping away at right now and found my preferred writing nook behind the door in our spare bedroom. I finished the first draft in June 2021, over a year after I started it.
Back then, it had another title, and the main plot looked quite different. I let a couple of friends (and Christine, of course) read it. They liked it, but something was missing.
So I wrote a second draft, and a third. I offered it to a selection of trusted beta readers in exchange for feedback. Around the same time, I was writing my second novel, also behind the door in our spare room. My process wasn’t great but I was bubbling over with creative enthusiasm, so I didn’t mind the logistical messiness of it all. I felt like I was perhaps becoming a writer after all.
Fast-forward to summer 2022. Life was mostly back to normal. I’d finished the first and second drafts of my second novel, The Substitute, and decided to try querying both it and Soulburn simultaneously to a bunch of literary agents.
Bad idea, in hindsight.
However, I was determined, and by autumn 2022, I’d signed with an agent for Soulburn. It went out on submission in January 2023. Around the same time, I finished my third novel, Humbug.
Sadly, my agent fell ill a few months later and was forced to quit the industry. I returned to the realm of unrepresented authors once again. Soulburn was yet to find a home.
Then, in June 2023, something exciting happened - an independent publisher here in the UK accepted my little debut novel. Over two years after its completion, Soulburn was finally on the pathway to publication.
Now, almost a year later, its release date is just seven days away. I’ve held a proof copy in my hands. Advanced reviews have been thoroughly positive. It’s real. It’s happening.
I can’t wait for it to finally see the light of day!
The journey from writing your first page to your book being published is a long one. There are plenty of amazing highs and gut-wrenching lows along the way, too. But, if you stick at it and learn as much as you can about the process as you go, you’ll stand a great chance of seeing your book in print some day.
It’s a fantastic feeling.
Keep going.
Pre-order your copy of The Soulburn Talisman here.
I'm a new subscriber. Glad to be here!
Been bedridden here in Thailand after a motorcycle accident. I haven't been in to fiction, especially fantasy, since my Lord of the Rings and Haruki Murakami days, but I have to say, receiving Chapter 1 from David truly lifted me up.
I became super hard-headed when my Amazon account failed to verify, even created a second account (and it failed), but I was very determined to get that pre-order in, and I eventually triumphed.
After all three of the luring sample chapters, I feel I really could picture the characters and environments in my head, and now I can hardly wait the next six days before I receive the whole thing.
Well done!