FAQ

Inheritance of Magic Series

Q. When’s the first book coming out?
A. October 2023.

Q. What’s it about?
A. Check out the series page.

Q. How long will it be?
A. Assuming the first few books are successful, pretty long.  I’m planning on making it a similar length to the Alex Verus series, so 12 volumes or so.

Alex Verus Series

Q. How many Alex Verus books are there?
A. 12.

Q. When’s the next Alex Verus book coming out?
A. The Alex Verus series is now finished.  The last book in the series, Risen, came out at the end of 2021.  My next novel will be the first volume in a completely new urban fantasy series, and is currently scheduled to be released in Autumn 2023.

Q. When’s the next Alex Verus novella coming out?
A. Depends how popular Favours and Gardens are.  If they continue to do well, I plan to write some more Alex Verus novellas and stories in 2023 onwards.  Otherwise, I’ll focus on my new series.

Q. When’s the audiobook coming out?
A. The Alex Verus audiobooks were published by Tantor Media. You can find their website here. Usually the audio editions are out within a week or two of the paper and ebook release, but Tantor don’t communicate directly with me, so if the release date isn’t on their site, I’m not going to know what it is.

Q. Are you ever going to do a collaboration with Jim Butcher where Alex Verus meets Harry Dresden?
A. It’s not impossible, but I don’t generally do collaborations, and as far as I know Jim doesn’t either, so it’s not very likely.

Things Related to the Alex Verus Universe

Q. How can Luna’s curse get passed down if the bearers can’t have children?
A. The curse doesn’t just go down the family tree, it can also go sideways. See Ask Luna #7.

Q. Isn’t Alex an adept and not a mage?
A. See Ask Luna #20, #24, #26, and #57 (there are more, but by this point Luna is getting thoroughly sick of the question).  Short answer:  the adept/mage distinction isn’t as clear-cut as you might think.

Q. If Alex can see into the future, why can’t he solve all his problems/make himself invincible?
A. Divination in the Alex Verus series works quite differently than it does in most fantasy stories, and Alex’s powers have some important limitations.  See the Encyclopaedia Arcana series on ‘Advanced Divination’, starting here. Parts 2-7 can be found here.

Q. What’s Richard’s magic type?  (This is a rather old question, but I used to get asked it a LOT)
A. If you were paying close attention, there were enough clues in book #8, Bound, to figure it out (a few people have written to me and correctly guessed it). If not, you’ll find out in book #10, Fallen.

Things Related To My Books In General

Q. Can you send a signed copy to me or to my wife/girfriend/boyfriend/daughter/baby/cat/dog?
A. Sorry, but no.

Q. But I’d pay the postage/costs . . .
A. It’s not the cost, it’s the time. Sorting out postage, payment, addresses, etc isn’t particularly difficult, but it’s quite time-consuming and any time I’m spending on things like this comes out of my workday.

Q. I can’t buy book X in my country/from this bookseller/on this particular website.
A. This occasionally happens and it’s usually due to some weird technical or delivery-related glitch that’s news to me as well. You’re better off approaching the distributor that you’re having difficulties with – they’re far more likely to have a solution than I am.

Q. How long do your books take to write?
A. Around a year or a bit less than a year to write, about another year to go from first draft to publication.

Q. Why does it take so long?
A. You can read a breakdown of the process starting here, or you can look here for the short version.

Q. I want to be a professional writer, do you have any advice?
A. Some, though I’m not sure how much it’ll help. You can read my thoughts on the subject here (that’s part 1, so keep going).

Q. I’ve written a book, can you read it and give me a blurb?
A. I’m not going to give an absolute no to this, but the unfortunate truth is that I very rarely read stuff that’s handed to me. My publishers occasionally give me finished proofs, and usually I take so long to get around to reading them that by the time I do the book’s long since been published. So . . . realistically, your chances aren’t great.

Q. I’d like to ask something that’s not covered here/write to you and say something nice/make a complaint/ask something about the books/ask something else.
A. Sure! You can reach me via the contact form.