Revenge has gone off to the proofreader

Tube Riders: Revenge is in its final stages of production. I hope to be bringing that bad boy to you in the next couple of weeks. If you thought Exile was good, just wait. Revenge takes the Tube Riders story to another level. Possibly the best book I've ever written.

And tomorrow is another year. There will be no respite, I'll be coming out of the blocks and starting immediately on the next book. I can't tell you want it'll be yet, because I haven't decided where to focus my concentration, but I have a number of options available and whichever one I chose it'll be awesome, so look out for that in a couple of months.

In the meantime, my book Man Who Built the World is currently reduced in price, so if you haven't read it and plan to, now is a good time. It's my highest rated book and, if I do say so myself, astonishingly good, haha.

Happy new year to everyone. See you again soon.

Chris Ward
31st December 2013

A Merry Xmas to you all

A very Merry Xmas to you all from me, Chris Ward, here at A Million Miles from Anywhere. I hope you had a great Xmas with your families and whatnot and that you have another great time at New Year.

For me, being in Japan, Xmas was unusual as always. I usually have to work as Xmas isn't a national holiday here, but this year I took the 25th to the 27th off and went up to Hokkaido with the wife for a couple of days for a look around. I'll be posting pictures and stuff on my other blog, Living in Nagano, over the next couple of days.

Back to the books. Exile is out now and available for your reading pleasure. Not being one to keep you waiting long, Revenge is just around the corner. I got it back from the editor a couple of days ago and as I have all of next week off I hope to have it ready to go fairly soon.

In addition to this, on January 6th, The Tube Riders will become available as part of an eleven-book dystopian boxed set featuring several luminaries of the sci-fi and dystopian field. I'm hopeful that this will expose the book to many new fans, as well as introducing Tube Riders fans to other great writers.

Okay, that's all for now.

See you soon,

Chris Ward
December 27th 2013

The Tube Riders: Revenge cover art

Now that Exile is finally out, its time to reveal the covers for Revenge, which will be published in January, all being well.

First up, the ebook -

Those eyes, of course, belong to the Governor, and that thing that looks a bit like a mouth (intentionally so!) is a burning train.

And the paperback -

On the back cover is Clifton Suspension bridge in Bristol. Yes, we used the same picture for Head of Words. While there is no overlap in the stories, there is a little overlap in the settings.

Again, these were the work of my regular cover designer, Su Halfwerk at www.novelprevue, and again she did a great job.

I hope you're enjoying Exile and looking forward to Revenge! If readers enjoy it half as much as I enjoyed writing it, then my job is done!

More news soon.

Chris Ward
December 22nd 2013

Exile release date ...

Okay, the time for talking is done. The Tube Riders: Exile will be released on December 16th 2013, come hell or highwater. There will be no delays or date changes. The book will be out on that day unless I get pancaked by a steamroller or something (I'm touching the wooden tabletop right now so hopefully not!). I'm also intrigued to discover that "to pancake" is actually a verb. Will be using that one...!

In better news, I'm almost done revising Revenge, so you should only have to wait a month or so for that badboy to drop as well.

So, let's have another look at that fine cover ...

 

DECEMBER 16th 2013

Edits are done!

Yes, you read that right. I've finished editing Tube Riders: Exile, someone else has finished editing Tube Riders: Exile and the corrections have been made. I've sent it out to a last proofreader for a final check and shortly after it will be available. I can't give you an exact date yet because I haven't decided it, but it will be early to mid December.

I finished the first draft in February, as you might remember me saying. That's nine months of messing around, rewriting, reworking and generally struggling (oh, and I wrote another Tube Riders book in the middle there ...). This was definitely the hardest book I've ever written. I think, though, that it came out okay. Some betas have said its as good as the first book, others have said its better. I'd settle for almost as good. I guess the readers will decide.

The return of Marta Banks and the Tube Riders is coming soon ....

And in the meantime, if you haven't read it yet, The Tube Riders (book 1 in the series) will be $0.99 until the release of Exile.

Buy it here or click the pic.

Chris Ward
November 24th 2013

Update November 23rd

I just got back from a two week teachers' conference up in the mountainous hills above Matsumoto in Nagano pref, Japan. Had an interesting time although it was a bit chilly.

Came back down the mountain to two bits of good news. The first was that England were smashing Australia in the cricket, and the second was that my editor had finished with Exile. Even better, he thought it rocked. For the last ten months of battle I've been worried it would suck, but that bodes well. Now just to make the corrections and change one or two minor things and then its off to the formatter.

More news coming soon ...


Chris Ward

November 23rd 2013

What I did today Monday 18th of November

Pretty quiet day at work today. Had to do speaking tests for one of my classes and then some speech contest practice after school. In the evening I went to the local insurance place to get a discount voucher for my second cat's neutering operation. Of course, in true Japan style, even though I went to the place the vet told me to go to, they told me I had to go to another place halfway across the city. It being 6 p.m., I didn't really have time, so it'll have to wait. Sometimes you think it would be easier to just pay for these things.

In writing related news, I got the cover back for Tube Riders: Revenge. It looks awesome, but I won't be revealing it until after Exile comes out. So stay tuned for that. I also got a few more chapters of the third draft of Revenge done, and its looking great. One chapter felt like the best thing I'd ever written. It was just perfect. Pretty sure no one will notice, but well ... :-) Two more hours of painting ceilings took up most of my writing time unfortunately. Tomorrow I'm working until 9pm, and Wed/Thurs I'm going to an English teacher's conference, so there won't be much writing for a few days, unfortunately. More updates soon ...

Chris Ward
18th November 2013