Blog Archives
Reading at Cross and Crow Books in Vancouver
I’ll be reading from my new book, The Wonder Lands War, at Cross and Crow Books in Vancouver Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. I’ll be sharing the reading with Katie Welch, who is launching her new book, Ladder to Heaven. Hope to see some of you there!
The Angel Azrael Visits the Trading Post at the End of the World a Final Time
I’ve published a new Azrael the Angel Gunslinger tale at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, The Angel Azrael Visits the Trading Post at the End of the World a Final Time.
The tale follows Azrael as he returns to the mysterious Trading Post at the End of the World in an apocalyptic storm to repay a debt to its angel proprietor. Only there’s a gang of strangers at the trading post who are strange in every sense of the word — and they have their own interest in Azrael’s angel friend.
Soon supernatural six-guns are blazing and the trading post becomes a battleground — and Azrael may finally have met his match.
If you like your westerns weird, it doesn’t get any weirder than this. Hope you check out it.
Here are the previous tales of Azrael the Angel Gunslinger:
- The Angel Azrael Rode Into the Town of Burnt Church on a Dead Horse – The angel Azrael rides into the town of Burnt Church for a drink and ends up helping the very strange inhabitants fight off a gang of demons that’s been tormenting them.
- The Angel Azrael Delivers Small Mercies – The angel Azrael encounters an angel who is determined to turn the world into her own personal Hell and only Azrael can stop her.
- The audio version of “The Angel Azrael Delivers Small Mercies” with a new introduction I recorded for the story
- The Angel Azrael Delivers Justice to the People of the Dust – The angel Azrael rides into a mining town that is under siege from curious bone creatures stealing the town’s children. When Azrael intervenes, he discovers that nothing is what it seems in this strange place.
- The Angel Azrael Encounters the Revelation Pilgrims and Other Curiosities – The angel Azrael is hired by a group of pilgrims to guide them through a dangerous stretch of land, where they encounter a city of the dead and an outlaw band of half angels intent on ensuring they don’t make it to their destination.
- The Angel Azrael and the War Ghosts – The angel Azrael tries to stop a group of ghostly soldiers from preying upon travellers and rides straight into his own troubled past.
- The Angel Azrael Battles a Dead God Among the Heretics – The angel Azrael encounters a village full of crazed golems intent upon resurrecting a dead god to unleash upon the world — a god that Azrael has already killed once.
- The Angel Azrael and the Dead Man’s Hand – The Angel Azrael wanders into a strange town and becomes trapped in a supernatural and deadly card game. A recommended read by Locus!
Win a free copy of The Wonder Lands War
The amazing crew at 49th Shelf are hosting a giveaway of the latest book in my Cross series of supernatural thrillers, The Wonder Lands War. Visit 49thshelf.com/Giveaways for a chance to win one of three copies of The Wonder Lands War.
Bonus: You can also enter to win other books by an amazing assortment of writers!
The giveaway period ends Nov. 1, so enter now!
A supernatural giveaway!
Wolsak and Wynn, the publisher of my Cross series of supernatural thrillers, is giving away the entire series! To enter, follow them on Instagram and share the giveaway post.
Wolsak and Wynn link: https://www.instagram.com/wolsakandwynn/
Giveaway post: https://www.instagram.com/p/DQU_RYSj6bv/
Magical Motels and Labyrinthian Libraries: The October 2025 Bibliofiles
This month saw some monstrous reads: supernatural shenanigans on spaceships, goblin libraries, medieval massacres and insider tales of the publishing industry. Enjoy?
Fiction
Enjoy Your Stay at the Shamrock Motel by Andrew Kaufman
The Shamrock Motel is a magical place that can only be found by those who are lost — both geographically and emotionally. The tales in this collection follow an eccentric cast of characters who all reach some crossroads in their life and end up checking in to the Shamrock Motel.
That’s when things get weird.
A woman embarks on an affair with a bear, a child lives inside a piece of furniture, a man’s penis turns into an extension cord, a woman is confined and cleaned by hundreds of smaller women and so on. It’s as if Schitt’s Creek was directed by David Lynch as an X-rated movie.
Enjoy Your Stay at the Shamrock Motel probably won’t appeal to those who take comfort in a Best Western. But those who have a little more eccentric tastes will never want to check out.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/216838651-enjoy-your-stay-at-the-shamrock-motel
Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove
Of Monsters and Mainframes is a fantastic mashup of space opera, quirky AIs and pulp horror — like if Murderbot had a dream of Halloween.
The tale follows the voyages of Demeter, a sentient spaceship that hauls passengers around the galaxy. But something goes wrong on one of Demeter’s voyages and hundreds of passengers die. Only Demeter knows the truth — the passengers were killed by Dracula!
If that’s not bad enough, Demeter’s next voyage features a werewolf running amok and killing most of the passengers. And the voyage after that has a strange bunch of cultists hijack the ship in an effort to find their sleeping god. And after that… well, you get the idea.
If it sounds absurd, that’s because it is. Of Monsters and Mainframes delights in playing genres against each other — science vs. supernatural, cold corporate bureaucracies vs. emotional AIs, and so on. Yet it’s also an intriguing mystery about consciousness — what can a ship actually perceive, and what if the AI is delusional — as well a warm found family tale.
If you’re looking for a little supernatural in your sci-fi, then this one is a monstrously good read!
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/216540053-of-monsters-and-mainframes
Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman
A lyrical nightmare of a tale that follows a disgraced knight wandering through an apocalyptic, plague-ravaged Europe that is populated with genuine monsters and demons — and angels?
Buehlman is one of the most creative and original fantasy writers of this generation and perhaps ever. While he may be best known for The Blacktongue Thief and its prequel, The Daughters War, Between Two Fires is a masterpiece of psychological horror and visionary madness.
Think The Road meets Hieronymous Bosch and you’ll have an idea of what lurks between the covers of this book, waiting for you.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13543121-between-two-fires
A Random Walk Through the Goblin Library by Chris Willrich
If your ideal fantasy tale is a magically written, literary labyrinth infused with Calvino, Borges, Lovecraft, necromancy, demons and supernatural libraries, then check out “A Random Walk Through the Goblin Library” by Chris Willrich.
Link: https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/a-random-walk-through-the-goblin-library/
Nonfiction
The Publishing Industry Has a Gambling Problem by Tajja Isen
Is publishing’s obsession with sales numbers hurting publishing?
Link: https://thewalrus.ca/the-publishing-industry-has-a-gambling-problem/
Distribution and the Terror of the Backorder by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
What happens when a book is popular but there are no copies available? Silvia Moreno-Garcia discusses how distribution trends are hurting writers.
Link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/distribution-and-141904814
Why Access Copyright matters
I recently received my Access Copyright payment for this year, and it’s an important reminder of how critical it is that creators receive compensation for their work. (Scowls in the general direction of AI companies that rip off writers.)
Access Copyright is another great Canadian program that ensures writers and publishers are compensated for their work being copied.
How it works
Access Copyright negotiates blanket licences with institutions that typically make copies of books, poems, articles, etc. to allow for such copying in return for compensation which it then distributes to writers and publishers.
Experience has proven that without such licences creators rarely get paid for use of their work, as those doing the copying don’t usually go through the effort of tracking down the rights holders and asking permission to copy, let alone offering compensation.
Why it matters
Canadian publishing is chronically underfunded and most publishers survive season to season. Canadian writers fare no better, with most authors earning low advances and having to cobble together an existence of different income streams.
The Canadian bookselling marketplace has largely been colonized by American culture over the past few decades, and it’s commonly estimated that Canadian authors only account for around 5% of Canadian book sales. In an environment like this, every bit of income matters to struggling creators.
The simple math of the situation is that if creators aren’t paid for their work, they’ll need to find other work to survive and that means they’ll be creating less. Each dollar invested in their support is a dollar invested in a new creation.
Access Copyright licences also protect the institutions behind the copying from infringement. There’s little danger of them being sued if they’re paying for the right to copy, and those doing the copying can do so knowing it’s legal and ethical.
Thanks
All of this is to say many thanks to Access Copyright and the people that keep it running for all they do to protect and support Canadian culture!
Books to read when the veil is thin
I’m thrilled to see my new Cross book, The Wonder Lands War, is included on the Books to Read When the Veil Is Thin list at 49th Shelf! Some truly spooky company!
The Wonder Lands War is a spooky must-read!
I’m thrilled to have my new Cross book, The Wonder Lands War, included in this list of “9 Spooky Must-Read Books by Canadian Authors.” Watch for The Wonder Lands War soon!
The Write Life: How’s your focus?
You have an idea for your new book or story, you’ve figured out the genre, you’ve created an outline, you’re sitting at your desk ready to go… now what?
Maybe make some coffee and respond to those emails so your mind is clear before you start typing? Or take one last scan of the news so you know whether your new work is completely out of touch or not? Or clean your home? Or or or….
Before you actually start writing, you need to create an environment where you can focus on the writing and nothing else. Actually, you’re going to need to create a few environments.
First, protect your physical space from distractions. Lock yourself in a room alone if you are able. Put a “do not disturb” or “ask someone else” sign on the door. I know a writer who puts a sign on her office door that simply says “no.” Close the blinds if the world outside is too distracting. Turn music off or on for the same reasons. Block time on your calendars so no one interrupts you. In short, make sure there is nothing in your physical world pulling you away from your writing world.
Next, find ways to prevent digital distractions. They are particularly challenging as most apps and services are designed to compete for your attention so you check in multiple times a day. This constant stimulation is kryptonite for your focus. Turn on your devices’ Do Not Disturb options and use website blockers if you can’t resist temptation. (No judgement – we’ve all been there.) Some writers I know only write on devices not connected to the Internet to manage this. Others use different methodologies such as the Pomodoro technique, where you use a timer to write for 25 minutes, take a short break, then write for another 25 minutes. There are lots of apps out there that will help break your addiction to other apps in this way.
Embrace digital minimalism. Audit your apps regularly and remove everything that doesn’t serve your goals and distracts you from writing. Too often we end up serving the apps rather than the other way around, so it’s good to check in on your relationships with your apps from time to time. Cal Newport has a pretty good book on this called Digital Minimalism that every writer should read.
Now that you’ve removed distractions as much as possible, try to write at the same time every day for the same amount of time. Write in the same place if that works for you, or change it up if you’re more the type that needs a bit of variety. A habit like this will reinforce itself over time and gradually become unconscious.
All of these actions are designed to get you into the flow state, where the writing just happens. It does take work and structure, though. Like meditation, this clarity of mind doesn’t come naturally but requires a lot of practice.
Save the “shallow work” for the end of the day or for scheduled breaks. (Cal Newport identifies a useful distinction between deep work such as writing and shallow work such as responding to emails, paying bills, etc. Check out his book Deep Work for more on this.)
End the workday with something that allows you to easily slip back into focus state the next day. For instance, end halfway through a chapter where you are excited to write the next scene. This will make it easier to sit down and start writing again.
Your focus is like a muscle. The more you regularly train it, the stronger it will get.
Now stop reading this and get back to writing.
Related
The Wonder Lands War cover reveal
Coming in October: The Wonder Lands War, the fourth book in the Cross series of supernatural thrillers. Cross’s search for the real Alice of the Wonderland tales takes him through a world of secret books, hidden libraries, dangerous cemeteries — and to the Wonder Lands, a dangerous and decaying faerie realm.
Along the way Cross encounters magical librarians, scheming angels, immortal priests and more. All of your favourite characters are back: Cross, Morgana and the faerie court, the undead Amelia, Mona Lisa and Judas — and, of course, Alice.
The Wonder Lands War is a tale of loss and mourning yet also a love letter to literature and the sanctuary it provides, even in the darkest times.
peter darbyshire 