Blog Archives
Turning pages with The Mona Lisa Sacrifice
I had a lovely conversation with Michael Elves about The Mona Lisa Sacrifice over at the Turning Pages radio show on 101.5 UMFM. We talked about the origins of the series, how difficult it is to write characters like Cross and his friends (namely Alice!), and the importance of knowing when to research the hell out of something and when to let the imagination run wild. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.
YouTube version here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ShO9CtDTv0
So precioussss
I must admit that I’m enjoying all the images I’m seeing online of the new editions of my Cross books. These are some of my favourite covers yet!
More details:
“Roger Zelazny is one of the reasons I wanted to become a writer”
I feel incredibly honoured to have been invited to the Re-Creative podcast to discuss Roger Zelazny’s The Chronicles of Amber series, which is probably more responsible than anything else for me becoming a writer. It’s a great conversation between Joe Mahoney, Mark Rayner and myself about the Amber books, my Cross series (The Mona Lisa Sacrifice, The Dead Hamlets, The Apocalypse Ark), spirituality, medical crises, the writing life and more.
We’re Not Dead Yet! – The interview
My interview with the fabulous We Aren’t Dead Yet team is now live! I had a great time discussing my book The Mona Lisa Sacrifice, the confused state of spirituality in our troubled times, and how best to charm a Beholder and ride it into battle in D&D.
Related:
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.
Related
Publication day for The Mona Lisa Sacrifice!
It’s publication day for The Mona Lisa Sacrifice. I am absolutely thrilled to see the first book of my Cross series of supernatural thrillers back in print with a special new edition from Poplar Press, an imprint of Wolsak and Wynn.
The early reviews have been positive, and it’s been gratifying to see all the love and interest in the book on social media. I’ve particularly enjoyed the podcast conversations I’ve had around the book — it’s always lovely to be able to talk about books and the writing process. Here are a couple that have gone live so far:
If you’ve read The Mona Lisa Sacrifice and enjoyed it, please consider leaving a review on your platform of choice and/or spread the word about it on social media. Positive word of mouth is how most people discover new reads now, and it’s incredibly important to writers such as myself. The more people that learn about a book, the more potential readers it has. That means a greater chance of future books by the same author!
If you haven’t read The Mona Lisa Sacrifice yet, here’s a brief summary:
For thousands of years, Cross has wandered the earth, a mortal soul trapped in the undying body left behind by Christ. He’s been a thief, a con man, a soldier and a drunkard. He’s fought as a slave in the Colosseum and as a knight at King Arthur’s side. But now he must play the part of reluctant hero, as an angel comes to him for help finding the Mona Lisa—the real Mona Lisa that inspired the painting. Cross’s quest takes him into a secret world within our own, populated by characters just as strange and wondrous as he is: gorgons and dead gods hidden away in museums; faeries that live in countryside pubs, trapping and enslaving unwary travellers; and super-rich collectors who trade magical artifacts among themselves. He’s haunted by memories of Penelope, the only woman he truly loved, and he wants to avenge her death at the hands of his ancient enemy, Judas, a forgotten god from an ancient time. The angel promises to deliver Judas to Cross, but nothing is ever what it seems when Judas is involved, and when a group of renegade angels looking for a new holy war show up, things truly go to hell.
Anyway, I hope you like(d) the book. As always, thanks for reading!
Peter
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
Cross reprints now available for pre-order!
I’m more than a bit excited to announce that the reprints of my first three Cross books are now available for pre-order with Wolsak and Wynn! Check out the amazing new covers designed by Michel Vrana, who also designed Has the World Ended Yet?, my last story collection. The books also include new bonus material that I’ll reveal later.
And yes, there is a new book in the Cross series coming soon. More on that to come.
Link for pre-orders: https://www.wolsakandwynn.ca/authors-all/peter-darbyshire
If you’re not familiar with the Cross series of supernatural thrillers, here’s a little bit about each:
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
No ghost in the machine?
I recently checked to see if any of my books were included in the books data set used to train AI systems and found The Mona Lisa Sacrifice and The Apocalypse Ark — Books 1 and 3 of my Cross series of supernatural thrillers. Book 2, The Dead Hamlets, was not included. I don’t quite know how I’m supposed to feel about that. Pleased? Irritated? The tale of Cross battling an order of renegade angels to free the gorgon Mona Lisa from their imprisonment is good enough? As is the tale of Cross desperately trying to stop the mad creature Noah from ending the world with his eerie ark at the Sunken City? But the tale of Cross becoming trapped in a ghost story featuring the original Hamlet ghost isn’t good enough for an AI?
I know I should probably have an opinion on whether or not books should be used in this manner, and I do: authors should be consulted on how their works are adapted or used and compensated appropriately. Without those basic rights, it’s a lot harder for authors to be able to keep creating the works we do. But I’m also too exhausted to say much else about it because, well, 2023.
And if the AIs run amok and try to end the world I’m really sorry about that….
The good news is that if the world doesn’t end the Cross books will be republished in 2024 with Wolsak and Wynn! Hopefully they’ll find some new human readers.
(Thanks to George Murray for the reminder about the data set. He has some thoughts about the whole issue in a recent Walrus article that is worth checking out.)
The second coming of Cross
I’m beyond excited to announce that my Cross series of supernatural thrillers will be continuing, with a new novel scheduled for 2025. The novel will be published by Poplar Press, an imprint of Wolsak & Wynn. I’m particularly happy about this because Wolsak & Wynn published my last book, Has the World Ended Yet?, and did a fantastic job. They will also be reissuing the first three books of the series in 2024. (The books were originally published under the pen name Peter Roman.)
If you’re not familiar with the Cross books, here’s the description of the first novel, The Mona Lisa Sacrifice:
For thousands of years, Cross has wandered the earth, a mortal soul trapped in the undying body left behind by Christ. He’s been a thief, a con man, a soldier and a drunkard. He’s fought as a slave in the Colosseum and as a knight at King Arthur’s side. But now he must play the part of reluctant hero, as an angel comes to him for help finding the Mona Lisa—the real Mona Lisa that inspired the painting. Cross’s quest takes him into a secret world within our own, populated by characters just as strange and wondrous as he is: gorgons and dead gods hidden away in museums; faeries that live in countryside pubs, trapping and enslaving unwary travellers; and super-rich collectors who trade magical artifacts among themselves. He’s haunted by memories of Penelope, the only woman he truly loved, and he wants to avenge her death at the hands of his ancient enemy, Judas, a forgotten god from an ancient time. The angel promises to deliver Judas to Cross, but nothing is ever what it seems when Judas is involved, and when a group of renegade angels looking for a new holy war show up, things truly go to hell.
The CBC compared The Mona Lisa Sacrifice to the work of Neil Gaiman, while the National Post called it “a deliriously unhinged roller coaster of a novel, blending fantasy, history, horror and humour with the aplomb of an overfull blender,” so that should give you some sense of the book.
For more info on the rest of the series, check out the second book, The Dead Hamlets, and the third book, The Apocalypse Ark.
This news brings two of my favourite things together. Cross has long been the character that most intrigues me as a writer, and his tales are my love letter to literature and myth. And Wolsak & Wynn has been my best publishing experience yet — they’re a great team that really care about publishing quality books. I’m still enamoured with the design of Has the World Ended Yet? years after it was first published! (Check out this backstory about the design process.) I’m really looking forward to continuing the Cross saga with them.
While you’re waiting for the new books to come out, please give Has the World Ended Yet? a read and support Wolsak & Wynn (and me). And if you’ve already read it, please consider giving it a review to let other people know about it. The best publicity for a book is another reader recommending it. And in these challenging times, books need all the publicity they can get. If you’ve already reviewed the book, then you have my deepest gratitude.
As always, thank you for reading.
peter darbyshire 