Welcome to Common Room Conversations!
Hello! We’re back again, and we’ve another awesome line-up. For those who haven’t checked out our previous two episodes of Common Room Conversations, the idea is that we invite a number of authors into a chatroom all at once, have a topic in mind, and then just… talk! See where the conversation takes us, rather than be beholden to any set questions. The goal is for this to be a much more casual and relaxed interview format. Basically like a textual, SFF-focused chat show.
This time around we have Gareth Hanrahan, Jackson Ford (also known as Rob Boffard), and crime writer RJ Dark (nemesis and absolutely no relation to RJ Barker) here to talk on the topic of Sh*t Hits the Fan. We talk about what goes into those novels where everything seems to go wrong for our characters, and we question if maybe their impulsivity has something to do with it.
There are few characters more impulsive in fantasy than Carillon Thay and Teagan Frost, as fans of The Gutter Prayer and The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t with Her Mind will know. Outside of the genre too, RJ Dark’s crime debut A Numbers Game has its own unique form of chaos, championed by Northern duo Malachite Jones and Jackie Singh Kattar. I’ll have more info about each of our authors’ recent books at the end of this post, but for now, here’s what they had to say!
(Note that the below features some spoilers for A Song of Ice and Fire and book 2 of the Frost Files series)
The Interview
HiuGregg:
Hello everyone!
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
Hey, Cabbage.
Jackson Ford:
Wattup!
Gareth Hanrahan:
Hello!
HiuGregg:
First question. You guys have put your characters in some truly shitty situations. Just how cruel do you need to be to do that to them? The therapy bills at Orbit HQ must be huge!
Jackson Ford:
I’m an absolute sadist. I get off on piling my characters with staggering amounts of shit.
Gareth Hanrahan:
It’s always partly their fault, though.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
It’s not cruel, cos they’re the main character in a book so they know they’ll get out of it.
Jackson Ford:
What RJ said.
Gareth Hanrahan:
You can build the tower of jenga blocks of pain, but the character has to walk up and stand underneath it.
Jackson Ford:
That’s an interesting analogy, Gareth.
HiuGregg:
I feel like that implies some kind of meta-book though, RJ, where the characters know they are characters.
Gareth Hanrahan:
Flann O’Brien’s AT SWIM TWO BIRDS, Hiu. Where a novelist’s characters rebel at being forced to do unwholesome things and take over his house.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
But they do literally have to. They are soldiers in our army and their job is to create plot or die trying.
HiuGregg:
I’m not sure if I’m impressed or scared at that response, Mr. Dark. 😂
Jackson Ford:
For me it’s almost like running experiments on mice. I like to see how they react when I put obstacles in front of them. Sometimes they do so in really surprising ways.
Gareth Hanrahan:
Or putting people into impossible situations and seeing how they’ll escape.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
And sometimes it’s just for quite boring mundane reasons. I still reckon the Red Wedding is 90% because George realised he had waaaay too many characters and had to sort that out.
Jackson Ford:
100%
Gareth Hanrahan:
It’s always hilarious (for certain values of hilarious) when you write yourself into a corner by putting your character into an inescapable deathtrap
Jackson Ford:
Yeah I do that all the time. Often quite deep in the book when there’s no way back.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
Ha! Yes, what Gareth said.
Jackson Ford:
The novelist’s curse.
HiuGregg:
That’s hilarious, how do you get your characters out of those corners when you stumble into them?
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
I’m curious, if the others do this. If I have two choices for a character, one is easy and one create’s problems for me in what I saw happening, I always choose the problematic one.
Jackson Ford:
I go on long walks to clear my head. I’ve always maintained that a writer’s best friend is a good pair of shoes. And yeah RJ absolutely do that it’s more fun.
Gareth Hanrahan:
Half the time, the answer’s already there in the text, and you just need to see it. The throwaway mention of a curtain when you were describing the room becomes – aha! – they can use the curtain as a rope and climb down the side of the burning tower.
The other half, I cheat and go back and write a curtain in when I’m revising.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
I often find that actually I’ve already solved a problem by the time I create it, even if I don’t know I have. It’s the puzzle bit that’s the fun bit. I think it’s why I really enjoy edits too.
Jackson Ford:
I try to completely reframe the problem. Come into it backwards.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
Can’t believe Gareth copied my answer first and said it better. Rude.
Jackson Ford:
But in a way these situations are really good. If I am not sure how to get my characters out of it, then there is a good bet that the reader will be surprised by how I do it.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
SO MUCH THIS.
Writing is largely and exercise in not letting myself get bored. Especially by book three.
Gareth Hanrahan:
Yep. The point at which writing becomes really fun is where you’re not entirely sure what’s going to happen next even as you’re writing it.
Jackson Ford:
Word.
HiuGregg:
I’m curious about the other side of it too, actually! Obviously there’s solving problems, but especially with the books you guys write, there’s an element of… layering problems there, too?
Jackson Ford:
For sure. The more you have, the more interesting the story can be.
HiuGregg:
Mal, Teagan, Cari — all very impulsive, all tend to fix one problem by giving themselves 10 more.
Jackson Ford:
Truth.
HiuGregg:
Well, more Jackie than Mal, maybe.
Jackson Ford:
Nah Jackie knows how to solve every problem that gets thrown at him. He’s badass.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
Yeah, I think of a book as a diamond shape. You start at a point, then you let it spread out and get more and more involved, then you have to weave it all back in to the end point.
Jackson Ford:
Yep!
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
Bless Jackie.
Gareth Hanrahan:
It’s sort of the old murder mystery trope of the first suspect being the second victim. The initial solution has to make stuff worse.
Jackson Ford:
Escalation. Always escalate.
HiuGregg:
The glee in these answers! 😂
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
Yes. You want the reader worried. Readers can be very easily distracted, and there’s a million other books, you have to supply reasons for them to stay.
1) I am invested in this person.
2) Oh my god how will they get out of this?
Gareth Hanrahan:
To put my other hat on for a sec, there’s a nightmarish corollary in adventure game design, where you can’t know how things have unfolded so you’ve got to weave it back in without seeing what events you’re working with…
Jackson Ford:
Gareth, can you explain that? I’m not sure I understand.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
I’m with J here.
Gareth Hanrahan:
Which bit?
Jackson Ford:
Why can’t you see what events you’re working with?
Gareth Hanrahan:
In roleplaying adventure design (which is my other gig), you don’t know what the protagonists are doing with certainty, as they’re controlled by the players. So, if you’re writing a big long adventure, you need to control the amount the action can branch out, or use fairly heavy-handed ways to channel events towards a climax.
Jackson Ford:
Wow. And I thought writing novels was complicated. Thanks bro.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
*makes note not to write adventure games*
Gareth Hanrahan:
Eh. Novels have protagonists that are the writer’s problem too.
HiuGregg:
It sounds like that’s part of the fun of being a novelist, too, though? Like… you guys get to build the Lego tower, and then knock it down.
Jackson Ford:
Yeah for sure. The bigger the tower, the more cathartic the chaos.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
I really like it feeling out of control. That’s when I’m at my most involved.
Jackson Ford:
THIS!
HiuGregg:
Especially with impulsive characters prone to stabbing and explosions, is it not a lot of fun to just… break a bunch of stuff?
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
OH GOD YES.
Also, to write people who do the stuff you wish you could do.
Gareth Hanrahan:
Part of the trick is working out how tall you can build the lego tower. because the reader still needs to be able to keep track of all the bricks.
Jackson Ford:
Thing is you can’t do that all the time, Hiu. You need to actually moderate the amount of damage you cause in terms of stabbing and explosions, otherwise they lose their impact. You need valleys between the peaks.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
YES. Write in waves.
HiuGregg:
RJ, The cynic in me immediately thought of those guys writing screenplays about down-on-their-luck screenwriters haha!
Jackson Ford:
Way too many of those already, bruh.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
HA!. Well, I am writing a book about a writer who…
HiuGregg:
Haha!
Gareth Hanrahan:
Middle-aged literary professors…
Jackson Ford:
Yeah, fuck that noise.
HiuGregg:
The valleys point is a great one, too! When you have these frantic OH FUCK OH FUCK books, how do you balance those loud moments with the quiet character stuff? Or even tie in character growth to the loud stuff?
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
Actually, ‘stuff you wish you could do’ is wrong. It’s people who do the stuff you would never do. Then you work through the consequences, writing about murder is a very good way of putting you off murdering someone.
Jackson Ford:
I’m not sure there’s really a method, necessarily. I think it’s just something you learn to feel. You learn to build in these quiet moments, where things are still terrible but maybe not that exact second.
Gareth Hanrahan:
Well, the quiet stuff is where you’re laying the bricks and setting stuff up. And you generally don’t have character growth in the loud stuff, you’ve got moments of character revelation, where the changes and growth you’ve set up in the quiet contemplative sections get reified.
Jackson Ford:
The REAL trick would be to do a Mad max. Character growth while shit is hitting the fan.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
Yes. I think you can read a million books on writing but you only leanr how it works by writing it and you kind of know when a thing should be happening. I’m very rarely consciously thinking, ‘slow it down here’ ‘introspection there.’
Jackson Ford:
RIGHT. This is why I say you can’t teach this stuff. You need to learn it on your own.
Gareth Hanrahan:
Talking of pacing, one thing I love writing but really need to restrain myself with are scenes where a character talks or thinks through lots of ‘what-ifs’.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
I think of these as the ‘why we won’t take the obvious option the reader thinks we should take’ scenes.
Jackson Ford:
yeah those are fun
HiuGregg:
On that note, Gareth, I gotta say I particularly loved a scene in The Broken God where Cari almost stabs someone impulsively, stops to make herself think, and thinks “Ok, who do I stab?” 😂
Gareth Hanrahan:
That was one of those scenes where I’d written myself into a corner and depowered my protagonist so she had to really think through her options.
But it’s really easy to fall into the trap of arguing the plot out on the page – at least for me.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
The mistake you’re making there, Gareth, is thinking about it. I try never to think about it.
Gareth Hanrahan:
Yes, Mr. Ruffalo.
Jackson Ford:
Weirdly you see people like Stephen King doing this a lot. Characters have a long conversation about what to do next, essentially rehashing the entire plot.
Gareth Hanrahan:
Oh, that’s interesting. I’ve read next to no Stephen King.
HiuGregg:
I guess personality is a big part of characterisation too, huh? So while we have these huge, rapid plot developments, all this shit thrown at the characters at once… just how invaluable is snark?
Jackson Ford:
I hate snark. To me that implies a kind of mean-spirited sarcasm that isn’t particularly clever or funny.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
I’m here for this opinion.
Gareth Hanrahan:
Plausible reactions to catastrophic situations: gallows humour/snark, taciturn getting-on-with-it-ness, and panic/freezing.
And one of those is much more entertaining to read.
HiuGregg:
It’s cool to get the range of those reactions though, huh? And I guess you guys all provide that with your wider side-character casts.
Jackson Ford:
For sure.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
People have to run the gamut of reactions, unless they are deliberately a bit one note for a reason. Jackie is quite one note in A Numbers Game but that’s cos he;s broken, and hopefully the reader picks that up.
Gareth Hanrahan:
Oh, yeah, you want them all. But your main protagonist has to be capable of taking meaningful action in the face of overwhelming danger (at least in a book where overwhelming danger happens more than one or twice).
Jackson Ford:
Truth. Even if they don’t know what the outcome is going to be.
HiuGregg:
And I guess the common theme between all of your books is that overwhelming danger happens a hell of a lot more than once or twice, haha!
Jackson Ford:
There is always overwhelming danger.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
I write the opposite of my actual life which is overwhelming lethergy.
Jackson Ford:
HiuGregg:
I wanted to ask about that kinda story structure fits in with longer series, actually. What do you think makes up the more… “episodic” feeling that we get with your books? (which I think are all intended to go beyond the “trilogy” that seems to be the default these days?)
Jackson Ford:
I think it’s a couple of things. Each book has to have a self-contained story that exists on its own and in the wider world. But at the same time, there needs to be a much greater danger that slowly builds over the course of a few books, and which the heroes are eventually going to have to face. Bonus points if these two dangers are related.
Gareth Hanrahan:
Plus, the leftover bits from the resolution of one book can interact interestingly with stuff in the next book.
I love it when something I introduced to fill a need in one episode has unexpected impacts down the line.
Jackson Ford:
Me too.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
For me it’s that my biggest influences are the American crime writers like Robert B Parker, Robert Crais and James Lee Burke who write sort of ‘murder of the week’ but because it’s based in real life you have to reference events. The Mal and Jackie books are hopefully books where you can pick up any and they’ll work, but they work better if you’ve read them all.
Jackson Ford:
That’s what I’m going for with Teagan too. I feel like a reader should be able to start anywhere they please, and still have fun.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
The Fantasy stuff is different, for me, cos especially with The Bone Ships stuff, that’s one very long book split into three.
Gareth Hanrahan:
Did you concieve it as one big book?
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
Not really, but as more of a trilogy than the Wounded Kingdom books which are self contained. I knew book two was going to be a cliffhanger.
HiuGregg:
I guess epic fantasy is a bit of a different beast in that regard, huh? Especially with all the heavy lifting that goes on with the worldbuilding. I can imagine you only want to do that once for a given series.
Jackson Ford:
That’s actually a really good point. The more world building you have to do, the harder it is to do it in every single book.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
Yeah, you have to scene set and the first book, by necessity, does the heavy lifting.
HiuGregg:
With these longer, more episodic series (and tying back into what Jackson said about the slowly building danger), how do you manage giving your characters continual “wins” when there’s such a power disparity between protagonist and antagonist? Whether that power is physical, magical, political, social, etc.
Jackson Ford:
I’m not sure I follow that? Is a power disparity a given?
HiuGregg:
I guess not? For Teagan, the power I’m talking about would be that which the government has over her. Though I guess a lot of that’s in her own head?
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
I’m not sure they do win either. In the Bone Ships it’s a matter of them “just” surviving.
Gareth Hanrahan:
For me, it’s partly a question of cost – you can beat this problem, but you’ll pay a toll or make more problems for yourself down the line. And partly a question of adapting to the growing competency of the protagonists.
Jackson Ford:
That’s a good way of putting it.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
And quite often I write people who are a cog in something bigger trying to survive. Girton was a help but he wasn’t actually the guy making the big changes. What Gareth said is spot on.
Gareth Hanrahan:
Certainly, the main characters of the Black Iron Legacy “levelled up” a bunch of times and are lot more able to deal with stuff now – but I started them off in a safe area and now that protection’s gone, so they’re just as vulnerable. More so, as they’ve taken responsibility.
Jackson Ford:
Yeah. Teagan is way more powerful by the end of the current book but that comes with greater scrutiny from her employers and from the public.
Gareth Hanrahan:
I find that really hard, RJ – I find myself drawn to switching to the POV of the person making the big changes.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
I quite liked in the Wounded Kingdom books that Girton didn’t really level up, he grew up and as such became a bit less likely to do something incredibly impulsive and stupid.
I’m the opposite, Gareth. I always find them the least interesting. It’s the people trying to survive the big events that interest me the most.
Jackson Ford:
Same
Gareth Hanrahan:
Maybe I like the illusion of control. 🙂
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
HA!
HiuGregg:
Speaking about survival… what about those that don’t? Particularly in longer series. How do you manage if/when your character casts start to thin out?
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
It’s quite a relief actually.
Less names to remember.
HiuGregg:
😂
Jackson Ford:
I tend to add new ones, because I am a sucker for punishment.
Gareth Hanrahan:
Yeah – between “minor side characters who are quite interesting, actually” and “dead characters who can still do stuff because magic”, I’m not at all short of cast. Quite the opposite.
HiuGregg:
Hey, adding flesh blood might be the way to go!
I’m weirdly thinking of the BBC series Luther now. Dunno if you guys watched it. It seemed like they killed off a character a season, but… didn’t really bother introducing any more.
Jackson Ford:
I watched like the first three and got bored.
HiuGregg:
By Season 10 it’s just gonna be Idris Elba alone in a room on a rocking chair, I swear.
Jackson Ford:
Hahahaha
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
The Jackie and Mal books are different. Cos there’s a cast who you probably know are going to stay. Then there’s a bad guy, and you probably know they are going to end badly. It’s more about the how and the drama on the way.
I liked Luther, but the quality did drop off.
Gareth Hanrahan:
Also, killing lots of characters is hard.
Jackson Ford:
Paging GRRM.
HiuGregg:
Emotionally or logistically?
Gareth Hanrahan:
Logistically.
Even the Red Wedding, how many important characters actually died there and stayed dead?
Jackson Ford:
Robb surely.
Bit hard to come back from that shit.
Gareth Hanrahan:
Robb and Catelyn, and she comes back.
HiuGregg:
I gotta say of all the guys in this conversation to be talking about the logistical difficulties of character genocide, I didn’t expect it to be the author with a straight-up GODSWAR in his books. 😂
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
Not that hard if you’re bored of them. But killing a character is often the least interesting thing you can do with them. Cos that’s their story done. The drama then is form the fallout of their death.
Jackson Ford:
TRUTH.
Death is always the last option. Have them stick around and cause trouble.
Gareth Hanrahan:
Yeah, and you can’t have fallout if six characters just died in one fell swoop.
Well, you can, but it’s going to be muted.
Jackson Ford:
People got mad when I didn’t kill off the big bad guy in Random Sh*t. They hated him and wanted him to die, but it’s so much more interesting if he can reappear in future books.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
And you create fatigue in the reader too.
HiuGregg:
I can confirm that I hated him and wanted him to die. But I’m intrigued to see where he pops up again, not gonna lie.
Jackson Ford:
He’s outside your front door now, mate.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
Genius.
HiuGregg:
Don’t you fucking dare.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
I dropped out of ASOIAF because so many people died. I stopped investing in characters because it made me feel like it was a trick to get an emotional reaction out of me later.
HiuGregg:
Hahaha I looked out my window and there was a boy cycling by my path.
Shit myself.
Jackson Ford:
Gareth Hanrahan:
So much of novel writing – or novel second-guessing – is trying to judge emotional affect in the reader.
HiuGregg:
Okay I think that’s been an hour and I don’t wanna keep you guys forever. So one last question!
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
How very dare you.
Asking questions
HiuGregg:
Fittingly, on conclusions. So when you have these longer series where things are building up and building up. When you’re gaining more familiarity with the characters with every book… How do you look to conclude their stories? Is that something you write with one eye towards?
Gareth Hanrahan:
What’s the line about every story ending in death, if you keep writing long enough?
HiuGregg:
I’m still mad at you about that.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
I nearly always know the end emotional point. Like where we went with Girton and Merela was always going to happen. And where we go with The Bone Ships was always going to happen. Jackie and Mal, less so cos it’s not written to end and they aren’t written to grow. Their books about those characters how they are.
Jackson Ford:
Yes, same. My books aren’t written to end.
There will always be more catastrophic shit.
HiuGregg:
That’s really interesting. So each book is a snapshot of their lives for you two, more than anything else?
Jackson Ford:
Pretty much.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
Yeah. Well, they’re crime books, so each books raisan d’etre, is not ‘character progression’ it’s ‘how the hell do they get out of this one?’
Gareth Hanrahan:
For my current series, certainly, the ending for the characters is sort of dependent on the resolution of the wider problem. It’s a setting that’s sliding into apocalypse.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
THE STAND gambit!
Gareth Hanrahan:
See above re Not Reading Stephen King 🙂
Jackson Ford:
You have to read him, man. He’s so good.
Gareth Hanrahan:
I’ve seen Simpsons parodies, so that almost counts.
Jackson Ford:
Haha
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
He blows everyone up. All that reading and then he just blows everyone up. I was raging, as the Scottish like to say.
HiuGregg:
We do like to say that.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
My Gran was Glaswegian.
HiuGregg:
Oh nice! We’re basically cousins.
Gareth Hanrahan:
I suppose the comforting resolution to books about giant piled-on multifaceted catastrophes is “but they survived it and lived happily ever after/went on to further wacky adventures” and not “and they were among the many who perished in said giant catastrophe”.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
They were only very slightly maimed.
Jackson Ford:
Mildly inconvenienced.
<emoji>
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
I WANT TO WRITE A BOOK BASED ON THIS.
HiuGregg:
Okay before we sign off.
And I know I technically don’t have this power.
But none of you are allowed to kill my favourite characters in a giant catastrophe.
OR maim them.
NO. MAIMING.
Jackson Ford:
Sorry bro. No chance.
Gareth Hanrahan:
There’s a whole other chat about “ways to scar your characters that show the costs of their adventures but don’t end their adventures”.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
You 100% have my promise, Cabbage friend..
HiuGregg:
Well 1 out of 3 is… well it’s terrible, but it’s slightly less terrible than 0. 😂
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
Should be remembered I am basically paid to make up lies.
HiuGregg:
Well that’s been over our hour, and I don’t wanna keep you guys forever! But thanks for coming over to chat, all, it’s been a lot of fun! 😄
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
It has! I would happily do it again.
Gareth Hanrahan:
Ditto.
Jackson Ford:
Thanks fam! This was fun.
Gareth Hanrahan:
It’s a nice low-stress format.
Jackson Ford:
Yeah. Like a chill con panel where you aren’t worrying about if you look/sound like a tool.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
Yes, I didn’t even have to kick the family out of the room.
HiuGregg:
Low-stress until you have to format it, haha!
(Editor’s note: ðŸ˜)
Gareth Hanrahan:
Yes, but that’s not our problem.
HiuGregg:
Fair. 😂
Gareth Hanrahan:
You drew this on yourself.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
HA!
Jackson Ford:
😄
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
Poor Cabbage.
HiuGregg:
It’s true. 😔
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
He has to decipher my typing.
Jackson Ford:
Aight guys peace! Been great talking to you, but gotta run.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
Night, Jackson!
HiuGregg:
Back at you mate, cya!
RJ, think it’s like 10.20am in Jackson time, admittedly.
Maybe “night” isn’t entirely accurate.
RJ Barker / RJ Dark:
Yes, but Rob is a creature of the night, so his day is basically his night.
There you go! Turns out a suspicious amount of thought goes into some of these domino-effect shitstorm novels, and it was really interesting to speak to Gareth, Jackson, and RJ! All three authors have either recently released a new novel, or are releasing one in the coming weeks, so let’s have a look at those!
Book Information
(Y’know, there’s just something really satisfying about a bunch of book covers lined up like the above.)
Eye of the Sh*t Storm (The Frost Files #3) by Jackson Ford
Teagan Frost might be getting better at moving sh*t with her mind – but her job working as a telekinetic government operative only ever seems to get harder. That’s not even talking about her car-crash of a love life . . .
And things are about to get even tougher. No sooner has Teagan chased off one psychotic kid hell-bent on trashing the whole West Coast, but now she has to contend with another supernatural being who can harness devastating electrical power. And if Teagan can’t stop him, the whole of Los Angeles will be facing the sh*tstorm of the century…
Eye of the Sh*t Storm is available now! Add it on Goodreads, or buy it now from Bookshop.org, Amazon US / UK, or other retailers.
Check out Hiu’s review of Eye of the Sh*t Storm here.
The Broken God (The Black Iron Legacy #3) by Gareth Hanrahan
The Godswar has come to Guerdon, dividing the city between three occupying powers. While the fragile Armistice holds back the gods, other forces seek to extend their influence. The criminal dragons of the Ghierdana ally with the surviving thieves – including Spar Idgeson, once heir to the Brotherhood of Thieves, now transformed into the living stone of the New City.
Meanwhile, far across the sea, Spar’s friend Carillon Thay travels towards the legendary land of Khebesh, but she, too, becomes enmeshed in the schemes of the Ghierdana – and in her own past. Can she find what she wants when even the gods seek vengeance against her?
The Broken God releases on May 18th in the US and May 20th in the UK! Add it on Goodreads, or pre-order it now from Bookshop.org, Amazon US / UK, or other retailers.
A Numbers Game by RJ Dark
Meet Malachite Jones – the foremost (and only) psychic medium on the gritty Blades Edge estate. All he wants are two things: a name that isn’t ‘Malachite’, and a quiet life. And maybe some real psychic powers, but he’s making a living without them.
Janine Stanbeck wants to find her dead husband Larry’s winning ticket and escape Blades Edge with her son. And she thinks Mal can help her.
But Larry’s dad is the crime lord of the estate, and he wants that ticket for himself, and worse for Mal, he’s not the only criminal with his eyes on it. Add in two coppers desperate to nick Mal’s best, only, and admittedly quite dangerous, friend, Jackie Singh Kattar, and Blades Edge is getting pretty crowded.
Malachite Jones might not really be able to talk to the dead, but if he and his friend Jackie Singh Kattar can’t find that money and a solution that pleases everyone they’re likely to be in need of a psychic medium themselves.
A Numbers Game releases on June 4th! Add it on Goodreads, or pre-order it now from Amazon UK.
For more author interviews, check out our podcast, or check out previous episodes of Common Room Conversations below:
| Episode Number | Guests | Topic |
| 1 | John Gwynne & Miles Cameron | Weapons in Fiction |
| 2 | C.L. Clark, Tasha Suri, and Shelley Parker-Chan | Sapphics Rise, Empires Fall |
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