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Unboxing the new books!
The new editions of my Cross series of supernatural thrillers have arrived so I made my first unboxing video! Check out the lovely new versions of The Mona Lisa Sacrifice, The Dead Hamlets and The Apocalypse Ark!
Under the Cover: Behind the scenes of the Cross books
All Lit Up has published my “behind the scenes” account of creating my Cross series of supernatural thrillers. Learn about the ancient poem that was the inspiration for Cross and the first book, The Mona Lisa Sacrifice; why the second book, The Dead Hamlets, had to be a ghost story set in the theatre world; and why the third book, The Apocalypse Ark, is literary chaos.
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From inspiration to The Dead Hamlets
I had a wonderful time talking to Ruff Radio about my book The Dead Hamlets and all things theatre — Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, performance vs. text, representation, the creative process, Ur-Hamlets and more. I actually worked in theatre a little in the past, and The Dead Hamlets is very much a love letter to those days. Many thanks to Christine Horne of Shakespeare in the Ruff for her thoughtful questions and theatre insights! I’d appreciate it if you give the interview a listen.
Here’s a bit of background to The Dead Hamlets if you’re not familiar with the book:
Something is rotten in the court of the faerie queen. A deadly spirit is killing off the faerie, and it has mysterious ties to Shakespeare’s play, “Hamlet.” The only one who can stop it is the immortal Cross, a charming rogue who also happens to be a drunk, a thief, and an angel killer. He is no friend of the faerie since they stole his daughter and made her one of their own. When it appears she may be the next victim of the haunting, though, he must race against time to save her. He encounters an eccentric and deadly cast of characters along the way: the real Witches of Macbeth, the undead playwright/demon hunter Christopher Marlowe, an eerie Alice from the Alice in Wonderland books, a deranged and magical scholar – and a very supernatural William Shakespeare. When Cross discovers a startling secret about the origins of “Hamlet” itself, he finds himself trapped in a ghost story even he may not be able to escape alive!
Pre-order the Cross books and get 25% off
I can’t believe the summer is halfway over already — or that my first three Cross books are only a few months away from republication! I’m excited as hell to see these books — The Mona Lisa Sacrifice, The Dead Hamlets and The Apocalypse Ark — out in updated versions by Wolsak and Wynn in October, with brand new covers by Michel Vrana (who also designed Has the World Ended Yet?, my collection of short stories). The new editions have been revised and feature afterwords by me as well — it’s almost like getting brand-new books!
If you pre-order all three novels in August directly from Wolsak and Wynn, you’ll get 25% off. Plus, if you order from Wolsak and Wynn or your favourite bookstore, you’ll get bonus benefits such as stickers and bookmarks. All the details are here.
It would genuinely mean a lot to me if you are able to pre-order the books. This sort of thing increasingly matters in today’s difficult publishing environment, where initial sales of a book can mean the difference between it reaching a wide range of readers or quickly disappearing without a trace. The more pre-orders a book gets, the more likely it is to get better bigger orders from bookstores and better placement, as well as higher rankings online. All of this ultimately translates into more readers — and more readers in turn mean more books by me or your other favourite authors. Yay readers!
If you can’t manage a pre-order, please consider a positive review on your site of choice or a shoutout on social media. Every signal boost helps a writer get a few more words out into the world.
As always, thanks for reading. I hope you like the Cross books as much as I enjoy writing them.
If you’re not familiar with the Cross series, here’s a little teaser:
The Mona Lisa Sacrifice
The immortal angel hunter Cross is a drunk, a thief, and a killer who scours the world for his ancient and equally undying enemy, Judas. Yes, that Judas. When one of the angels he hunts promises to deliver him Judas if he can find the real Mona Lisa, Cross charges headlong into a mystery involving a sisterhood of gorgons, Alice from the Wonderland tales, the faerie queen and her court, and a war between the angels that could very well end the world.
Praise for The Mona Lisa Sacrifice
- “A deliriously unhinged roller coaster of a novel, blending fantasy, history, horror and humour with the aplomb of an overfull blender, but all of it smarter than it, truly, has any right – or need – to be.” – National Post
- “Sweeps you up with its gallows humour, whether you’re revelling in the pleasures of two-fisted, angel-punching action or the cleverly rendered language.” – Quill & Quire
Pre-order The Mona Lisa Sacrifice now!
The Dead Hamlets
Something is rotten in the court of the faerie queen. A deadly spirit is killing off the faerie, and it has mysterious ties to Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. The only one who can stop it is the immortal Cross. He is no friend of the faerie since they stole his daughter and made her one of their own, but when it appears she will be the next victim he has no choice but to solve the ghostly mystery. He encounters an eccentric and deadly cast of characters along the way: the real Witches of Macbeth, the undead playwright/demon hunter Christopher Marlowe, a deranged and magical scholar – and a very supernatural William Shakespeare. When Cross discovers a startling secret about the origins of Hamlet itself, he finds himself trapped in a ghost story even he may not be able to escape alive!
Praise for The Dead Hamlets
- “The Dead Hamlets is a fun, and whip-smart, read.” – Vancouver Sun
Pre-order The Dead Hamlets now!
The Apocalypse Ark
The immortal Cross faces his most dangerous enemy yet: Noah. For ages Noah has sailed the seas, seeking out all of God’s mistakes and imprisoning them on his ark. Noah is not humanity’s saviour but is instead God’s jailer. But he has grown increasingly mad over the centuries, and now he is determined to end the world by raising the mysterious Sunken City. Only one person can stop him: Cross.
The Apocalypse Ark is an epic chase around the world and through history and myth as Cross races to stop Noah from finding the Sunken City. He’s joined by a few old friends, such as Alice from the Wonderland tales, and several new characters make memorable appearances as well: Captain Nemo and his crew of Atlanteans aboard the submarine the Nautilus; the sorcerous pirate Blackbeard, who has sworn revenge upon Cross; the devilish angel Sariel, whose sacred duty it is to protect God’s Bible; and the eerie and mysterious Ishmael, who may be the key to the world’s salvation – or its damnation. Cross must find a way to bring them all together to stop Noah or the world will drown in madness.
Praise for The Apocalypse Ark
- “Mythological beasts, Lovecraftian allusions, pirates, and characters from Moby Dick and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea all fuse together to form a vastly entertaining, fantastical, breakneck hodgepodge quest novel that has the good sense never to take itself too seriously.” – Publishers Weekly
- “[Darbyshire] writes with the unfettered delight of a gluttonous reader trapped in a library in his own mind, drawing promiscuously from myth, folk tale, religious texts and apocrypha, literature, music and philosophy — seemingly anything that catches his attention” – Vancouver Sun
It’s never really done, is it?
I submitted the final edits for my new Cross book, The Dead Hamlets, on Friday. It’s out in mid-January. I’m going to binge watch Netflix now.
The Dead Hamlets available for pre-order
It looks like my new Cross novel, The Dead Hamlets, is available for pre-order. That’s right — click on the link and you can buy a book from the future!
peter darbyshire 