Gollancz have kindly supplied the lettering to match the previous thief-taker books. There’s some more design work to be done and the colours are arbitrary at the moment, but I like the picture and the motif fits the story perfectly (a small band of thief-takers head out into the bay at night to investigate the arrival of a mysterious ship). So I’d like this for the cover, or something in a similar vein.

I found this particular piece here on deviant art. I’ve tried to contact the artist via Deviant Art’s message service, I’ve tried via the artist’s mail address given in his profile and I’ve tried via the contact link on his own web page, asking whether the rights to use the picture as cover art for a story are available for purchase. I’ve had no response. Too busy, not interested I don’t know. So OK, open call for submissions then. I’m looking for some cover art. I’m prepared to pay for it. The example here shows you what pretty well what I’m looking for (although if I’m comissioning from fresh I’d like something in portait format with bland areas of sky and sea for the title and the name, and might switch their positions).

So if anyone knows anyone who might be interested in taking on a commission like this, please let me know. Budget will be limited but I don’t expect artists to work for free. Meanwhile I continue my own searching, and if the original artist of this piece ever happens to get in touch, he’ll have first dibs. Suggestions here or via Twitter or e-mail me.

Historical Fiction as S J Deas (William Falkland)

William Falkland has spent six years fighting for the king. It’s four years since he last saw his family, and all he wants to do is go home; but first, to save himself from Parliament’s noose, he must play the part of Cromwell’s reluctant intelligencer. The first William Falkland book, the Royalist, is published by Headline in September this year. The second William Falkland mystery, The Protector featuring John Milton (a wonderfully colourful character, it turns out) comes out in July 2015.

Historical Fiction as Stephen Deas (Bulldog Drummond)

Bulldog Drummond (a character first created in the 1920s by HC McNeile) is a retired verteran of the first world war with too much restless energy on his hands and a penchant for adventure and trouble. I like to think of him as James Bond’s occasional uncle. More than a dozen Bulldog Drummond books were written between 1919 and 1940, along with a similar number of movies. Ian Fleming cited Drummond as one of the influences behind the character of James Bond. At present three Bulldog Drummond novellas are in the pipeline (Dead Man’s Gate (2014), The Faceless Men (due late 2015), The Jaguar Mask (late 2015)). They will be available as e-books only through Piqwiq.

Science Fiction as Gavin Deas

Elite: Wanted (May 2014 e-book, October 2014 hardcopy), a tie-in novel to the game Elite:Dangerous. Co-written with Gavin Smith under the name Gavin Deas. Empires: Extraction (November 2014), another partnership with Gavin Smith, co-released with Gavin’s Empires: Infiltration.

Fantasy as Stephen Deas: A Memory of Flames:

Click here for Maps and Gazetteers

The Adamantine Palace (2009) is in print in UK/Australia/NZ/SA, France, USA, Germany and Poland and might or might not be on its way to Bulgaria. The King of the Crags (2010) and The Order of the Scales (2011) are in UK/Australia/NZ/SA, France, Germany and US bookshops but NOT Poland for reasons beyond my control.

The Silver Kings series The Black Mausoleum (UK August 2012) is a stand-alone novel in the same setting as the Memory of Flames series. Dragon Queen (2013), The Splintered Gods (2014) and The Silver Kings (2015) pick up threads and characters from the Memory of Flames series and also pick up some threads from the Thief-Taker’s Apprentice series and The Black Mausoleum. There are no overseas deals for these (you’re not as sorry about that as I am) but it should be possible to get them in the US. That’s going to be that for the dragons at least for a while.

Fantasy as Stephen Deas: The Thief-Taker’s Apprentice

The Thief-Taker’s Apprentice (2010) is out in the UK and Poland. Parts two and three, The Warlock’s Shadow, (2011) and The King’s Assassin (2012), are out in the UK. Allegedly all three are available now in the US as both physical and e-book editions. Some left-over threads of the story are picked up in Dragon Queen.

Fantasy as Nathan Hawke: Gallow

The Fateguard series: The Crimson Shield (2013), Cold Redemption (2013), The Last Bastion (2013), all published by Gollancz under the pen-name Nathan Hawke

The Nathan Hawke site has an interactive map and some extra short stories. All three books are out in paperback. An omnibus edition is available as an e-book and a print edition is on its way in later 2014 – the omnibus has all the extras included in it. Three short stories were released over the first half of 2015: The Anvil, Solance and Dragon’s Reach: