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I can finally reveal some very cool news- will be Goldsboro Books July pick for . Goldsboro books specialise in producing beautiful limited edition books, and as you can see in the art below they’ve done a fabulous job- the lightning along the paper edge is incredibly cool!

In their words: ‘Our July #GSFF book strikes like lightning! Today, we're excited to reveal that our July GSFF book is The Gauntlet and the Fist Beneath by Ian Green. We fell in love with this book as soon as we started reading it, and think it's a debut that will mark the start of an impressive writing career. Featuring a mother hellbent on rescuing her daughter, eldritch gods, twisted magic and more, it's a book we knew we had to have. Our GSFF exclusive edition will be signed and numbered with lightning bolt stencilled edges and a special foil design to the front board.��

These special editions will be limited to members of their Sci Fi and Fantasy club initially, but hopefully they will have some on general sale at some point! Signing three boxes of first pages was a lot of fun, but a little stressful trying to get them into and out of Algiers on a sharp turnaround.

To celebrate the good news I commisioned some character art of Floré, Janos, and Benazir. These three are some of the main characters we follow in THE GAUNTLET AND THE FIST BENEATH. A soldier with a brutal temper, a mage terrified of his own power, and a leader trying to find her courage.

I commisioned this art from and I’m so thrilled with the result- so many cool little details buried within.

I’m in the final throes of book 2 at the moment, and fostering a wee kitten we found with an injured paw. She is keeping me company as I finish off this post, currently shredding a pot plant. Chaos reigns!

It is now 3 months until THE GAUNTLET AND THE FIST BENEATH launches and things are heating up- already I have some reviews starting to trickle in (some highlights below), and the book is now available on for reviewers/librarians/bloggers and the like.

The cover art is finalised for all editions (hardback, trade paperback, mass market paperback, and ebook!) and the ramp up to launch is beginning. I’m really excited about the final map for the book- you can see below the sketch I was using whilst writing, which served me well but for publication we have pulled together something a lot shinier. Some secret fun stuff is also going on in the background that will be revealed as soon as is possible!

Looking forward, hopefully we will be able to hold some kind of physical book launch in august, but it will of course depend on the situation and the rules nearer to the time.

As for now, what am I doing? I am finishing up book 2 to be submitted to my editor Holly at Head of Zeus, and trying to get the ball rolling with the marketing and publicity team to let as many people know about GAUNTLET as possible. I might even be sharing a sneak preview of the book here at some point soon��

Review excerpts:

'a wonderful premise and an absolutely bonkers prologue'- Sachin Dev, Smorgasbord Fantasia

��a fabulous lead character��- Ryan, NetGalley

��a brutal and rich fantasy world��- Anthony, GoodReads

��fabulous��- Abigail, GoodReads

Time to finally reveal the cover, and open up pre-orders for

The silver cover is the hardback, with gold foil lightning. The red with highlights is the paperback edition (also with foil lightning!), and the red with strong black lettering the ebook edition. I’m realy pleased with how these turned out- covers designed by Patrick Knowles.

Now that pre-orders are up I can also share the blurb from the publishers for Gauntlet:

Protect. Fight. Destroy.

Protect your people.

The endless rotstorm rages over the ruins of the Ferron Empire. Floré would never let the slavers of the Empire rise again. As a warrior of the Stormguard Commandos, she wrought horrors in the rotstorm to protect her people. She did her duty and left the bloodshed behind.

Fight for your family.
Floré’s peace is shattered when blazing orbs of light cut through the night sky and descend on her village. Her daughter is abducted and Floré is forced into a chase across a land of twisted monsters and ancient gods. She must pursue the mysterious orbs, whose presence could herald the return of the Empire she spent her entire life fighting.

Destroy your enemies.
Now, Floré must take up the role she swore to put aside and become the weapon the Stormguard trained her to be, to save not only her daughter, but her people . . .

Read this action-packed and unique fantasy adventure from debut Scottish author, Ian Green. Perfect for fans of Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive series or Sam Sykes' Seven Blades In Black.

Pre-order on Amazon here:

UK:

Foyles-

Waterstones-

WHSmith-

Bookshop.org-

Australia:

Dymocks-

Booktopia-

HaperCollinsAU-

It is sunny in Algiers, the trees are in blossom and the sea is sprightly. Lockdown restrictions have jsut eased here a little (10pm-5am curfew still in place) as COVID-19 cases have reduced in number, so hopefully more of a chance to move around soon- got my eye on some roman ruins to the south near the canyon city of Constantine, famed for its bridges and cliffs. Fingers crossed for some expeditions soon.

What is going on?

THE GAUNTLET AND THE FIST BENEATH launches in about 5 months! The cover art is almost finalised, and the full swing of marketing and promotion is coming in to play. This is all new to me so looking forward to learning as much as I can. Hopefully this means some varied content will be appearing over the next few months to try and build some excitement for the launch. Copy-edits are locked in and I’m excited to get to share this with you all after so long of it only being in my head.

BOOK 2 is well underway and I’m enjoying the experience of writing it a lot. It is a strangely different rejoining these characters rather than starting from whole-cloth, but I know them so well at this point that there is an element of ease in putting them in a situation and seeing how they react (except for the new characters where I get to start from the start). I have a draft title, but who knows where it’ll end up so for now we will stick with ‘Book 2��. Outlook: sunny. The first book is a frenetic chase, so keeping up that pace for book 2 has been the main challenge but I think it is coming together with an appropriately break-neck pace- we will see what the alpha-readers think! Being in the scrappy early stage of one book whilst simultaneously polishing an almost shelf-ready other book is a bit strange, but I’ve been digging into Tolkien’s draft maps (see an example from The Silmarillion below) to remind myself that everyones drafts look crazy!

FUN STUFF been digging into a lot of research recently, enjoying work from the artist Hokusai, old book covers, rune drawings from historical research documents- all of it gets added to the well, and the choice parts make their influence felt. I’ve been doing an introductory drawing class with South African artist for the last month to try and improve my rough sketches which has been very satisfying. In a year so dedicated to screens and words, sitting down with a pencil and paper and really focusing has been a wonderful experience, and her classes on line/tone/texture and so on offer up an introduction to a lot of these concepts for someone like me who hasn’t studied art for a long time! Perhaps some more of my sketches to come��

It is the end of 2020! The less said about that the better on most counts.

What is happening? I’m finalising the copyedits of GAUNTLET book 1 before it goes to formatters/printers, hoping to catch any wee mistakes in continuity etc. This has been great as I am deep in the first draft of book 2, a nice reminder of open threads and pertinent details. I’m out in Algiers, where COVID-19 has led to some strong restrictions- we are all living under a 8pm-5am curfew, which curtails the fun a wee bit. Some big storms have been blowing through, but the oranges on the tree outside are ripe and the view across the mediteranean sea is beautiful as ever.

2021 is going to be a big year for me, mainly centered around the launch of GAUNTLET, the delivery of book 2 to my publishers at Aries, and hopefully getting some time hiking in. Last year i was meant to spend 6 months hiking inthe woods and ended up only doing a few weeks, so this year I’m aiming for at least a few weeks and we will see where we land. The trail in Sweden is currently high on my list, 273 miles through arctic wilderness where elk, bears, and wolves still roam.

I got some runestones as a christmas present- a lot of the magic system in GAUNTLET is about pattern, and how patterns call to patterns beyond themselves. I used the elder futharc rune system as a model for the alphabet used by the Ferron/Undal mages, but as with all languages it is inherently limited. The magic an Undal mage might conjure with a rune may be equally conjured by a mage from elsewhere by use of an image, an incantation, or a gesture. However, four patterns are linked to forces far beyond any mere human mage: ᛉᚷᛏᚫ.

These are the marks of the JUDGES.

I can’t wait for you to meet them.

ᛉᚷᛏᚫ

I went to Tipasa, west of Algiers. ~2600 years ago this was a Carthaginian port, where Punic ships would anchor up to trade with the indigenous populations. The Romans took over, up until a Vandal invasion in the 430's AD which heralded a slow decline of the port into obscurity and ruin. At varying points over the last 3000 years the area has been settled by the indigenous people, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, and probably more. Now, the ruins are listed as a . The mosaics still hold colour 2000 years on, and the olive trees grow through and around the ruins.

On a nearby tomb, the intricate stonework of the stands stark against blue sky, with an imposing position over the surrounding hills of red dirt and clay, rows of olive trees, the shadow of mountains to the south and the calm of the Meditaranean sea to the north. The tombs is the resting place of Cleopatra Selene II (daughter of Mark Antony, Roman Triumvir, and Queen of Egypt Cleopatra VII). You can see the chiselled grafiiti of 19th century vandals in the stonework, given an air of importance by the passage of time (but still a blotch).

In Tipasa you can see a row of what 2000 years ago were houses or storefronts on a street leading down to the sea, where fishing boats could anchor. Take a few streets back from the ruins and there are homes and storefrotns, and you can buy fish from the new (old) fishing port- life goes one much as it always has, as it does everywhere.

For now, curfew in Algiers is set to 8pm to 5am as the Covid case count rises, and I am doign a little freelance work, a little french, and a lot of writing on the second book in the GAUNTLET trilogy. I’ve always been fascianted by ruins- the ruins of castles in scotland and abandoned homesteads on the desolate moors of the north west were some of the inspiration for the aesthetic and feeling I wanted to convey in GAUNTLET. Whenever I travel, I’m always drawn to these remnants of another time that always underlie where we are now. One of my favourite things about Tolkien’s work is how the world not only feels thoroughly populated by believable cultures, but also feels as if it has a rich history; the Shire is full of Hobbits, but there was stonework there before them, hints of cultures come and gone. In Britain is it much the same. The Motte and Bailey earthworks of some ancient chief or king that are now crowned in trees in the middle of a cemetery; the barrow that is nothign more than an odd hill to the rambler today. In Algeria, in Scotland, in Middle Earth, the world is inhabited but it is also inherited.

Bonjour! Hello. What is happening?

CONCEPT ART- I’ve collected below a few images from my ‘concept art�� folder for THE GAUNTLET AND THE FIST BENEATH. Since the project began I’ve been collecting bits and pieces from all over the place whenever they feel right. You can also check out this for more ideas of what inspired the world of my first novel

WRITING UPDATE- currently waiting on some final notes for THE GAUNTLET AND THE FIST BENEATH, and I’m underway with Book 2! Plotting this has been a lot of fun, and I think there is a lot of great action to come. GAUNTLET is a fast-paced adventure, so I’m hoping to maintain the momentum with book 2 even as we see more of the world of Morost and the people within it.

LIFE- I’ve now been in Algiers for just over a month. My french is slowly improving, and I’m exploring more every day. It is a beautiful city and I’ve not even begun to scratch the surface, but so far the people are lovely and the food is great so I’m happy

Whats coming up? Hopefully some travel (COVID allowing) and a lot more writing. Trying to figure the best way for sharing stuff like concept art and cool things I find during research, mainly it will be on twitter I think!

What is happening? So many exciting things, so many strange things.

THE GAUNTLET AND THE FIST BENEATH book 1 of my fantasy trilogy is coming out summer 2021 with the imprint of , so a year away! I am currently in the process of doing some edits, but very shortly it will be back with the publishers and the slow march to publication will begin. And then book 2 will begin in earnest��

I was meant to be in the desert and the woods from March-September. It is now September, and I am far from the woods. This year has been bizarre. I’m currently en route to Algiers where I’ll be based for the next few years. It is an insane time to be trying to move continent, and juggling it around edits, work, and some desperate French lessons. All seems to be balancing so far so fingers crossed.

This is my first novel, so I’m incredibly excited to move through the process and learn as much as I can and get this book in your hands!

THE GAUNTLET AND THE FIST BENEATH

The very best . My debut fantasy novel is being published summer 2021 by the imprint of I’m incredibly excited to get this opportunity, and can’t wait for you to read the epic first entry to this saga.

In their words:

Welcome to Aries ! Ian's has it all:

Goblins to battle

Medieval village terrorised

Awesome magic

Good vs evil showdown

Shine your gauntlets and get ready folks, this is one epic read!

Mic Cheetham Agency updated their website- I am up there! Some of the other writers represented here have been absolutely pivotal in my development. I’m super exceited, more news to come.