I’ve mentioned the epic fantasy I’ve been working on for a while now, and promised more information in the fullness of time. That time is now!

The Riven Kingdom will be published by Angry Robot next year. The press release says:

Angry Robot Books has acquired Juliet E. McKenna’s The Riven Kingdom, described as a “fresh and gripping fantasy” that “blends politics, religion, and a battle for a dead king’s throne, perfect for fans of the Realm of the Elderlings series.”

Commissioned by editor Simon Spanton Walker, the one-book deal covers physical, ebook and audio.
“After devising a world with eerie, hidden magic and winding lethal intrigues around characters as new to me as they will be to readers, I’m thrilled to be working with Angry Robot to bring this story to fantasy fans,” says Juliet.

Simon Spanton Walker, commissioning editor, says: “Juliet writes involved and involving fantasy of the very highest order. The Riven Kingdom is no exception: a nuanced and gripping tale that uses fantasy to give vivid life to both the rulers and the ruled of a fantasy world in crisis. We’re incredibly proud to be her publisher.”

And Juliet’s agent, Max Edwards, adds: “Juliet E. McKenna is a legend among fantasy writers, and for good reason. The worlds she builds, the characters who populate them, and the challenges they face, are truly epic in their scope. After several years away from her heartland, it’s thrilling to see The Riven Kingdom re-inventing the epic fantasy for today’s world.”

So what’s the book about?

When King Venais is killed before he can marry and father an heir, the kingdom of Arafaze is thrown into uncertainty. His sister Princess Idelina, too grief-stricken to assert her claim to the throne, finds herself circled by those with ambitions of their own: Princess Alriad, the dead King’s aunt, seeks endorsement from the Sun Goddess’ high temple to rule as regent; Earl Padran and Earl Debin are determined to see the rightful succession secured; King Tadiri of neighbouring Mervante, whose daughter was set to marry the King, senses an opportunity.

As the kingdom splits into opposing factions, Jadewin, an experienced Moon Priestess, and Alory, a young Sun Priest, discover cliques within the temples and shrines betraying their vows to stay out of royal rivalries. Priests and priestesses defend this world against terrifying incursions from the intangible realm. Amid the upheavals of a war of succession, who knows what malevolent creatures might gain entry into their reality…

The Riven Kingdom is a high fantasy that explores the harsh realities of hereditary power in a world where knowledge of magic and the supernatural are secrets too dangerous to share.

We have a stupendous cover and I will share that as soon as I get the nod.

Taking a quick break from revising my new epic fantasy novel* to be published by Angry Robot next year, here’s some news to please keen readers.

The Green Man’s Holiday will be published by Wizard’s Tower Press on 30th October 2025, and ebook preorders are now open. Paper editions will be available for preorder soon. Check with your preferred retailer and/or find the full roster of purchase links at the Wizard’s Tower Press website.

Incidentally, if you would like to read some early excerpts, do check out Book Quote Wednesday #BookQW on social media. For me, that’s Bluesky, Mastodon, and Facebook. We get a word each week to look for in our books and share what we find. All authors are welcome to join in, so if you browse the hashtag, you’ll find a wide range of genres and writers.

*details about the new fantasy novel will be forthcoming in due course. I can say we now have a title we like very much, and an excellent cover concept. I am very pleased with the new facets added to the original story by the shifts in focus discussed and agreed after editorial input.

Once this rewrite is done, I’ll hopefully blog a bit more frequently…

I’m often asked, since I’m on the board of the Society of Authors, why legal action isn’t underway in the UK to hold the big tech companies to account for their wholesale and blatant breaches of copyright in using authors’ work scraped from pirate websites?

Well, for a start, class action lawsuits are much more difficult and complicated under English law than in the US. Even relatively straightforward cases can, and most likely will, take years to reach a conclusion and cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. Especially when the other side has more money to spend than many countries’ annual budgets, and every interest in finding procedural ways to drag things out, in order to exhaust the plaintiff’s financial and other resources.

What can make a significant difference to a defendant’s attitude to the threat of UK litigation, and indeed to the prospects for certifying a class action in the UK courts, are judgements elsewhere which have gone against them on the same grounds. This is why recent developments in the US are important, and not only for American authors.

Firstly –

“On Wednesday, July 16, bestselling author David Baldacci delivered powerful testimony before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, laying bare the devastating impact of AI companies’ systematic theft of copyrighted works. “I truly felt like someone had backed up a truck to my imagination and stolen everything I’d ever created,” Baldacci told the subcommittee, describing his discovery that AI companies had pirated his entire body of work to train their systems.
The moment of recognition came when Baldacci’s son asked ChatGPT to write a plot that read like a Baldacci novel. “In about five seconds, three pages came up that had elements of pretty much every book I’d ever written, including plot lines, character names, narrative, the works.”

You can read the full article here, and I recommend you do so.

Secondly –

“A California federal judge ruled Thursday that three authors suing Anthropic over copyright infringement can bring a class action lawsuit representing all U.S. writers whose work was allegedly downloaded from libraries of pirated works.
The filing alleges that Anthropic, the Amazon-backed OpenAI competitor behind the chatbot Claude, “violated the Copyright Act by doing Napster-style downloading of millions of works.” It alleges that the company downloaded as many as seven million copies of books from libraries of pirated works.”

Article here

We have to keep in mind this is a marathon, not a sprint. Frustrating as that is.

I’m looking forward to these autumn events, and discussing the fiction and non-fiction I’ve been working on with readers and fellow writers. And perhaps I’ll have more to share about future plans?

20th September – Edge Lit, Derby.

25th October – MCM Comic Con, London – I’ll be here on Saturday morning…

before hopping on a train to get to …

26th October – Bristolcon, Bristol

followed by …

30th October – 2nd November – World Fantasy Convention, Brighton UK

If our paths cross somewhere, feel free to say hello!

A brief and very pleasing bit of news today. I’m delighted to share Ben Baldwin’s fantastic cover, along with the title of the next book in my Green Man series.

The Green Man’s Holiday will be officially launched in October at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton (with a sneak preview at Bristolcon).

Will Dan and Fin enjoy the relaxing break they’re hoping for? You’ll have to wait and see…

I hadn’t planned on a six month blogging hiatus. So what happened?

On the plus side, over the Christmas and New Year break, I found the ideas I had for the next Green Man book were coming together in new and interesting ways. As soon as the holiday was over, I started writing, and I kept on writing. After illness and other upheavals wreaked havoc with my work schedule last year, I was determined to get as much of the new book done as soon as I could, in case anything unexpected happened. I pretty much assumed it would.

I’m happy to say no crisis hit. I got the draft written fast and fluently. With the benefit of editor Toby Selwyn’s invaluable input, we now have the finished manuscript, ready well ahead of the book’s planned launch at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton at the end of October. Ben Baldwin has now worked his usual magic and given us a marvellous cover. Details will forthcoming soon.

Other things in the plus column include me contributing an essay to the creative writing handbook, Writing the Magic, edited by Dan Coxon. I decided to explore what Tolkien’s creative process could offer a writer today – and where following in his footsteps might not be the best idea. That was an interesting and illuminating exercise on many levels. And talking of Tolkien, Zen Cho’s memorial lecture on fantasy fiction was as entertaining as it was instructive, and is well worth a watch.

I have also been working with the team at Angry Robot to agree on some changes to a fantasy novel proposal. That was one of the other projects that got badly disrupted last year. We have reached an entirely satisfactory consensus, and signed the contract. That book will be published next year, and when I read the opening few pages at Eastercon, people were pleasingly intrigued.

As an aside, some people have been surprised when I’ve mentioned I’m reworking a novel to a fairly significant extent following editorial input on my proposal. I’m surprised that they are surprised. It’s not the first time I’ve done this after all, going right back to my early Tales of Einarinn days. Fresh eyes, especially experienced, professional eyes, can offer valuable new input at every stage of a book’s development. I’m simply telling the story I want to tell from a slightly different perspective. Shifting the focus on certain characters, and rebalancing different plot elements, is proving to be an enjoyable challenge.

So I have been busy, and not only with writing. I was re-elected to the board of the Society of Authors last autumn, and we have been extremely busy. The onslaught on copyright law led by tech companies, hell bent on monetising their parasitical Large Language Models, has only been our most high profile challenge. A whole lot of things are making life difficult for writers at present, from the fragmentation and degradation of social media to bad practise and sheer incompetence by some publishers. You’ll notice I’m not naming names or mentioning specifics. I have a duty of confidentiality to the Society and its membership. That precludes me blogging about the publishing industry outrage of the day/week. Even without that, I haven’t had time to spare to get into debating and exploring the details of extremely complex situations.

Then there’s the ongoing everything else; in society, in politics, in the climate crisis, and international affairs. You don’t need me to tell you we live in perilous and unhappy times. I’ve balanced keeping current with the news with not letting it overwhelm me, which has meant spending less time online. Yes, I absolutely recognise the social and financial privilege I have which allows me to do that. I use that privilege where and when I can, to do what I can, mostly offline. Then there’s been family stuff; nothing dire, I’m glad to say, but everything takes up time. All this has added up to me limiting my social media to Bluesky, Mastodon and Facebook, disinclined to post longer form blogs, even about unrelated things.

So what has changed? Mostly, I’ve got the new Green Man book completed without a crisis. This time last year, I was scrabbling to get back on track, still recovering from a serious illness. Currently, I’m ahead of the game. I realised this when I looked at the calendar this morning. Don’t ask me why, but that flipped some sort of switch. Today was the day to dust off the blog.

Today sees Different Times and Other Places, my retrospective short fiction collection, published by Newcon Press. This is the latest in their Polestars series showcasing writers working across speculative fiction – who happen to be women. Selecting these stories has offered me insights into my development as a writer, as well as highlighting inspirations which I realise go back to my earliest reading. It has also given me the opportunity to share two completely new, previously unpublished stories. The Green Man’s Guest sees an unexpected encounter for Dan Mackmain in an arboretum, while A Stitch in Time Saves One explores an epic fantasy possibility that occurred to me and was simply too good not to use somewhere.

The only downside of putting this collection together – if I can even call it that – is I find I want to write more and longer stories about the people and places I have revisited. My natural writing length is the novel. Writing short stories is a skill I have consciously learned. It’s a distinctly different narrative form which I have come to appreciate, not least by reading the work of other authors who do this supremely well. Writing really good, effective short fiction absolutely isn’t simply a case of fitting a story into the required word count.

My first novel, The Thief’s Gamble, was an epic fantasy, a genre I still read and enjoy. I often come across potential inspirations for fresh ways of looking at magic, and of reflecting on our own lives using the magic mirror of a previously unimagined secondary world. These days, short stories allow me to explore these ideas in between writing my ongoing Green Man series of contemporary fantasy novels. And since a short story asks far less of a reader’s time, they are an excellent way to offer an introduction to my style and perspective as an author.

I don’t ever want to become complacent as a writer, so I continually strive to hone my skills. The best way to improve your abilities in any craft is to tackle new tests. That’s something else I get from short fiction. Writing for a themed anthology is an intriguing creative challenge as I look for an angle that no one else has seen. Then I get to read everyone else’s stories, and see the other possibilities they found. In Fight Like A Girl Volume 2, from Wizard’s Tower Press, it’s great to see so many authors from the first volume returning, as well as the contributions from other writers joining us. It’s very rewarding to see readers enjoying the breadth of perspectives this anthology offers.

Shared-world writing asks similar and also different questions of an author, as a group of writers work together to find the balance between individuality and collaboration that creates a coherent setting which becomes more than the sum of its parts. I contributed the story ‘Unseen Hands’ to the Ampyrium anthology from ZNB in the summer, working with and alongside a great roster of writers to build this new and original milieu.

February 2025 will see the publication of the Lincolnshire Folk Tales Reimagined anthology. This was a different writing challenge yet again. The team behind the ‘Lincolnshire Folk Tales: Origins, Legacies, Connections, Futures’ project at Nottingham Trent University are putting together a programme of launch events, which will include readings, Q&A and more, to promote interest and awareness of the origins and influences of this storytelling heritage. Check this page for the dates and places for events – you’ll need to scroll down for the newest additions.

And now? I’ll get back to working on a new, full-length project that I’m developing, alongside Dan’s next adventure…

I’m delighted to share the news that my female-centred Arthurian retelling, The Cleaving, is now available as an audiobook, courtesy of Watkins Media, narrated by Joanna Carpenter.

You can find it here

I’ve felt for years that the legendary epics of King Arthur and Camelot don’t tell the whole story. In particular the women are badly underserved, as they are denied the right to control their own destinies amid the wars and rivalries that determine ‘the matter of Britain’. As far as Arthur and Merlin are concerned, they serve Camelot by doing as they are told and nothing more.

So we’re supposed to accept Arthur’s mother Ygraine marrying the man who’s just killed her husband? Arthur’s half-sister Morgana turns to dark magic to defy him and Merlin just because she’s ‘bad’? The enchantress Nimue challenges Merlin and uses her magic to outwit him – but why does she do it? Come to that, exactly why does Arthur’s marriage to the dutiful, biddable, beautiful Guinevere end in adultery, rebellion and death.

When I focused on the women I saw a different picture. Men forget that women talk. Ygraine, Nimue, Morgana and Guinevere have opportunities to become friends and allies as the decisions that shape their lives are taken out of their hands. Now these women have a voice.

The seventh instalment of Dan Mackmain’s adventures makes this the longest continuous sequence of novels that I’ve written. Okay, I actually reached that point with the last book, The Green Man’s Quarry but I’ve only just thought about this. The Tales of Einarinn came to a natural pause after five volumes. The subsequent books in the World of Einarinn timeline were a series of four novels, followed by two trilogies. With each of those sequences, I was determined not to rewrite a story I’d already told. Shifting focus to a different part of that fantasy world with a new cast of characters was a key part of ensuring that.

So how can I keep writing the Green Man books without repeating myself? It turns out elements embedded in these stories from the start are very helpful. I decided Dan’s life would be grounded in everyday reality. Writing epic fantasy novels showed me how a solid foundation makes the magical far more believable. With these books, that means a year or so between each story sees a year or so pass in Dan’s life. His relationships develop and his priorities change. That makes new demands on him and I can find new ways to threaten him.

These books are rooted in British folklore. This is a vast and varied resource. The more I read, the more I find to spur my imagination. I don’t necessarily find complete stories. Most local legends are single incidents, often tied a particular landscape feature or an old building. A lot of these stories are very similar, even when they’re set hundreds of miles apart. None of this is a problem. As I read these variations, I can use common threads to weave stories into the underlying mythology that’s evolving through this series. Where I find contradictions and exceptions, those can remind the reader not to take anything for granted. Where mentions of a monster are little more than fragments, I can devise something that’s both familiar and wholly new.

Then there’s the catalyst. The creative process that has emerged for these books is very different to my approach to writing an epic fantasy novel or a historical murder mystery. I plan those in detail from the start, and I tailor my research to the needs of the plot I’ve already worked out. Each Green Man book starts with me gathering assorted, apparently unrelated ideas from my folklore reading, from places I visit, from conversations with like-minded friends. I make note of news stories about rural life and concerns which will affect Dan and his friends. At that stage, I genuinely have no idea what the next book will be about.

Then I will come across something that suggests a way to tie these ideas together. Once I have that catalyst, the story starts to take shape. Its internal momentum shows me where and when to draw the next element in. Now my research is about finding the people and resources to tell me things I had no idea I would need to know. I will be well into writing the novel before I see the ending come into focus ahead. I would never have imagined I would be working this way, but the experience is as exciting as it has been unexpected.

So what was the catalyst for The Green Man’s War? When we were visiting Burford one day last winter, my husband saw a small bronze statue of three dancing hares in a jeweller’s shop window. Regular readers will understand why that caught his eye. We went in to buy it, only to discover the shop door should have been locked and the ‘Closed’ sign put up. A distracted member of staff had followed the usual routine on auto-pilot. The manager and staff were actually in the shop that morning to compile an insurance claim after being robbed the week before. A gang of men armed with hammers and knives had ambushed the keyholder outside, forced their way in, and stripped the shelves and display cases bare. The nice people in the shop were happy to sell us the little statue, once they had told us all about it.

That got me thinking. What would Dan do, faced with that situation? Why might something like that happen to him? I’d read a few myths that mentioned jewellery. Ideas started coming together…

I had an excellent time at Fantasycon in Chester, and an excellent time at Bristolcon, which is where you would expect it to be held. Having spent the last two days clearing the decks of work stuff, today will be getting everything ready for our trip to Sweden tomorrow. I’ll be one of the Guests of Honour at Fantastika 2024, this year’s Swecon, over the weekend. After that, husband and I are having a week’s holiday in Stockholm. (Burglars please note, Resident Son is taking vacation days while we are away to have his own holiday at home.) This will be our first break in what has been a challenging year for a range of reasons. I’m looking forward to coming home refreshed to work on a couple of things at a more relaxed pace than the past six months have allowed.

I’m also encouraged by what’s been a recurring theme in panel discussions, namely the importance of writers examining and discussing the origins of themes and archetypes they’re using. An important reason for this is to avoid perpetuating outdated and even harmful subtexts and ideas. More than that, writers are seeing the wide range of opportunities to be found in identifying the stories not being told, by looking at variations on legends, old and new, which don’t centre the most frequently-used characters and story structures. I feel this is excellent for the SF&F genre.

Enthusiasm at these conventions for the forthcoming new anthology Fight Like A Girl Volume 2 (Amazon pre-orders here) is very rewarding, as is people’s eagerness to read The Green Man’s War (Amazon pre-orders here), which will be published on 15th November,. For comprehensive lists of non-Amazon buying links check out the Wizard’s Tower Press pages for Fight Like A Girl Vol.2 and for The Green Man’s War.

Something I’ve found very entertaining is seeing readers (who tagged me in) discussing their responses to the Green Man series protagonist Dan Mackmain, as a character and as a ‘real person’. The consensus seems to be affection blended with intermittent exasperation, as expressed in splendid fashion here.

“Daniel. Sweetie. That’s gonna bite you in the ass later. Daniel. No. Please think this through.”

I’ve had some intriguing conversations about Dan in person as well. All of this encourages me to continue writing his story. It’ll be interesting to see where delving into my folklore To Be Read stack takes him next.

The way Dan’s occupation is interwoven with his personality, and influences his actions ,leads me very nicely into the guest post following this. Andrew Knighton has been reflecting on ways in which a fictional character’s work can colour and shape a story. I am very much looking forward to reading Andrew’s new novel, The Executioner’s Blade, when I get home from our travels.