Release Announcement!

Announcement! Announcement
And yes, it’s not exactly new news—anyone who’s been on this blog for any length of time is aware that I’ve been trying to get that fourth Ferryman’s Apprentice book out the door for quite some time but never managed it. Well, this time, it not only has plans, but it has links! And Preorders!

Cover art for The Ferryman's Apprentice, Book 4. Cover art and design by Helen Graham.

Yes, finally. It is finally here. So many thanks to the wonderful Helen Graham for the cover art for this final entry in the series (as well as thanks again to Janis, Fabienne, Paige and Joe, who all had hands in the art for the previous books at various stages. I appreciate all the effort and time they put into making these look so good!).

Before we get into the links, lemme first outline what you’re in for.

The Ferryman’s Apprentice has been free on the blog since it was first published, and it’s a permanent fixture. If you want to try before you buy, see the details here, or the first chapter starts here.

But that version, free and complete though it may be, isn’t good at a few things: for example, it’s really bad at looking awesome on your bookshelf with its delightful cover art. It also doesn’t come with these:

Sticker design depicting Wilom from The Ferryman's Apprentice sitting in a boat with a lantern. Art and design by Shannon Thomson

This is one of a set of stickers created by the wonderful Shannon Thomson. There are six of them and every one of them is equally excellent. Should you choose to make a purchase of The Ferryman’s Apprentice book/s, you’ll get all six of these stickers for your very own, to keep for really realsies! They’re only available with bundles, and once the bundles are gone, they’re gone, too, so if you want them, this is how you get them.


Plus, this coincides with a second announcement: I have a new short story coming out! This is Hol(l)o(w)metabolism, which will be available for purchase Very Soon. It’s a story about a bug person preparing to undergo their metamorphosis and enter their cocoon … if the mounting pressure that society places on that transformation doesn’t get to them first.

Cover art of Hol(l)o(w)metabolism, depicting a lineart caterpillar. Cover and design by Lee Cope.

I know you’re all going to want a copy, so as long as you’re going to send me on a trip to the post office anyway (I don’t mind!), why not finish (or start!) your The Ferryman’s Apprentice collection while you’re at it?

To that end, I’ve put together a few limited-time bundles. Save on shipping, get my books and short stories at a discounted price, support a self-published author, and get some objects to decorate your home with! Sound like a good deal?

Well, here are your options. If you want to see them all up front, here’s the link to the Ko-Fi store page where this is all going down, but if you want a rundown of the options first, here it is:

Promotional image depicting The Ferryman's Apprentice cover, the Hol(l)o(w)metabolism cover, and a sheet of stickers fanned out like a hand of cards.

There are four bundles! They start small: just one book in The Ferryman’s Apprentice series and your sheet of six stickers, all for the same price as just buying the one book. Or you can bundle two books or three books … or all four if you’re feeling really spicy! Bundles are discounted, and cheaper than buying the books individually.

Plus, you can add goodies! Each one has options to add some extra stickers, or throw in one of my short story zines (or both of them!), also for discounted prices.

Because of the way Ko-Fi works, I unfortunately can’t create enough options to let you add as many extras as you like. I’ll work it out, I promise, but for now, if you think you’ll want more than four books, more than two sheets of stickers, or more than two zines in your bundle, shoot me an e-mail through the contact form here and we can work something out.

Preorders are open now! Orders start shipping on 10 August, but the bundles are going to remain available until the end of August. Remember, though! The stickers are limited edition, and the bundles have discounts, so make sure you do get in before the end of August if you’re interested!

And as always, until next update post, I’ll be streaming on Fridays on Twitch, and you can always come chat with me on the social media in the sidebar.

A Brief Correction

Hi hello all. It has been brought to my attention that I have made a mistake.

In the March 2025 update, I talked about tFA4’s promo happening what appears to be next week. This is incorrect, and I apologise, especially to my sticker artist who didn’t deserve the sudden spike of deadline anxiety I accidentally caused.

May. I meant May.

Previous post has been amended to match, and I’ll do a post with full (and correct) details for easy reference sometime in the next week or so.

The Last Town

The town was looming on the horizon and the tension was growing. Wilom was starting to wonder if he really had made the right decision. The Ferryman’s Knowledge wasn’t being helpful. He knew they felt better about being prepared. He had no idea how that would translate into action when they actually reached the town, if things actually went wrong. He was just going to have to wait and see. Continue reading “The Last Town”

Rumours

In the morning, Wilom was woken up to the sound of an argument.

Colonel Briar and Harie were standing by the remains of the campfire. Wilom was the first to have poked his head out of the tent, but he was not far ahead of most of the others. Yolin poked his head around, and so did some of the members of the other squad, but most of them pulled back into their tents immediately, not wanting to be caught snooping on the conversation. Continue reading “Rumours”

Hints and Secrets

In the morning, Wilom tried to find a moment to talk to Colonel Briar privately, but it was no use. The Colonel brushed him off as they got ready in the morning, ordering him to ‘get that tent down before we leave you behind’. As they walked, Wilom made a half-hearted attempt to break formation and speak with him, but that was quickly shut down, too. So it wasn’t until the evening, when they had set up their camp and the two Colonels had left the squads to their own devices around the little fire that Wilom finally found a moment to slip away. Continue reading “Hints and Secrets”

Ripples

Wilom was a little surprised to learn, exiting the Pathways, that he hadn’t been missed at all. Colonel Torcel and the others had apparently assumed Colonel Briar would be chewing Wilom out for a while to come, and had set about creating a perimeter, demarcating a meeting area, and waiting. True to the Mayor’s word, they didn’t enter the city, though Wilom could tell that Torcel wasn’t happy about it. He joined them in placing the last few markers. He could tell that Javrinnen and Yolin, at least, were burning to ask him what had happened, but the first of the townspeople started arriving before they could draw him aside to ask. Continue reading “Ripples”

Projection

Since the first evacuation had gone relatively smoothly, when they woke up and got on the road the next morning, the atmosphere was quite different. The squads were more comfortable — more hopeful. Still rattled, of course. They’d all seen Harie come back with the townspeople who had nearly been left behind. But there was a distinct undercurrent of “maybe that hadn’t gone so badly”, and that was a difficult sentiment to squash entirely. But Wilom was having trouble trusting that things would continue to go smoothly. He didn’t know whether he was affected by Harie’s persistent bad mood and the Colonels’ persistent, tired resignation — that feeling of being very near the end of a draining project, knowing that soon they would be able to rest, but also knowing that there was nothing they could do about it yet — or whether he was just starting to get cynical, but he couldn’t help suspecting that something was going to go wrong before the end of this assignment. Continue reading “Projection”

The Last Assignment

Even though he wasn’t using the Ferryman’s Knowledge — at least, as much as he could avoid it — the next few hours were a blur for Wilom. They got the news first from the soldiers and conscripts who met them at the gates, excited to spread the news to new ears. Colonel Briar was immediately whisked away, in the centre of a crowd of other commanding officers. They said nothing as they left, and Wilom would have suspected, even without the Ferryman’s Knowledge to confirm it, that the Colonel was being taken to debriefings and probably strategy meetings, to keep the officers informed of what was going on. Wilom idly wondered how much of the real situation someone like the Colonel would be told. Was he high enough in rank or position to get most of the story? Or only the parts that related to his missions? Of those parts, how many were lies, like what was published in the newspapers? Continue reading “The Last Assignment”