Benedict Jacka

Well, it’s taken almost 10 months, but Inheritance of Magic #5 is finished!

Over the next few days I’ll check in with my beta readers, give it an edit, and send it off early next week.  For now, though, I’m going to take a break.

Last full chapter of Book #5 is done!  Just the epilogue to go, and the first draft will be finished.

As often seems to happen these days, the book’s ended up a little longer than expected.  I usually plan for my books to run to about 90,000 words, but by the time I add on the epilogue, this one will be more like 105,000.  Still, that’s not excessive, and I don’t think my readers are likely to complain (in the past they’ve typically been much more likely to say that the books are too short).

With a bit of luck, by the time I write the next of these posts, the first draft will be complete.

Almost there.  Just a little more work and Book 5 will be done.

Apologies for the thin content lately.  There are reasons for this that I don’t want to discuss just yet – I’ve got a big announcement to make, but it’ll require some work on my end and I want to focus on finishing this book first.  Once that’s done, I’ll take a week or two to rest, then I’ll put up a big post telling you all what’s been going on in the background this year.

Well, plus a short epilogue.  92,000 words so far as of the beginning of Chapter 18, so we’re looking at about 100k for the finished manuscript.

Shooting for first-draft completion by the end of the month.

Chapter 16 of Inheritance of Magic #5 is done.  About two more (maybe tw0-and-a-half) and we should be finished.

Still hoping to be done by the end of October, though it’ll take a bit of a push to do it.

Just got sent the draft cover for the French edition of An Inheritance of Magic this week!  Here it is:

It’ll be published by Bayard Editions on 27th January, 2027.

Back home from my holiday, and as promised, here’s an overview of how things are going with the Inheritance of Magic series!

Book #4 in the series, A Progression of Demons, will be published in hardback/ebook on March 23, 2027.  As usual, the audio edition will be coming out around the same time.  Narrator is the same guy who did the last three, Will Watt – if all goes well he’ll be voicing the entire series.  The UK paperback edition will be released later on.

Book #5 in the series is into its last stretch.  It’s currently around the 80,000-85,000 word mark, and I’m working on what should be the last section.  Another 15,000 words or so and it should be done.  I’m hoping to get it finished in October – fingers crossed!

Worldbuilding articles are still kind of in limbo at the moment.  Due to various issues that I’ll get into in at a later date, I’m more pressed for time than usual and I’m struggling to keep up with the writing and other duties.  This happens from time to time and inevitably the result is that I have to start letting lower-priority stuff fall by the wayside, and worldbuilding articles are unfortunately one of those lower-priority things.  I do have a few ones planned out, but it’ll probably be some time before I get around to writing them.

Alex Verus #9, Marked, is supposed to be featured as a Science Fiction and Fantasy Goldbox Deal on 10/11/26, priced at $1.99.  I’ll post closer to the time when it’s confirmed.

And that’s about all for now!  More news as and when I get it.

Back home!  Had a nice holiday and even managed to get a little bit of writing done (not much, but that’s to be expected, really).  More news next week.

Currently away on one of my very rare non-writing holidays.  Back next week.

(Well, probably non-writing.  I still might end up trying to get started on the last section if I find the time.  Would be really nice to get it done by mid-October or so!)

Second-to-last section of Inheritance of Magic #5 is finished!  The book’s currently at 80,000 words – one more section of 15-20k, and we should be done!

I’m off on holiday for a couple of weeks now, but I’ll try to get a little work done while I’m gone, and I’ll aim to finish the manuscript in October once I’m back.  See you in a fortnight!