Hi everyone. Just to let you know about an offer on at the minute. You can get the PORTENTOUS TRILOGY – box set download of my Dais brothers books – for only 99c in the US via Amazon. After the weekend it will go back to $3.49. Apologies to readers elsewhere! However, if you have Kindle Unlimited you can read it as part of your subscription anyway.
Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08B33W22F
I also thought I’d put some thoughts down about how it came to be, as it’s not in my usual suspense / horror niche. I just had an idea in my head about a man – a good, honest man – being torn between the responsibilities of his job and loyalty to his family. Thus Wexlen started to take shape, a government worker… but no, he felt more like someone from another time or place, so he became a governor of a settlement, under the watchful eye of a larger ruling power.
So he’s a governor, heading home after some trade discussions, only to find his brother is causing an issue for other officials from the ruling Centre. I then had to think about the brother… a bit rash, hot-headed, different in many ways to Wexlen, but linked by biology. Paxlan came into focus. He’s being stubborn and unreasonable, so it seems straightforward enough: Wexlen should tell Paxlan he’s wrong and side with his bosses… but I didn’t want it to be that straightforward. Wex needed a dilemma, an emotional tussle. It was something to do with the Centre representative that was putting pressure on his brother…
That’s how their nemesis, Croke, came into being. If he’d done something awful to them in the past, then it wouldn’t be so easy for Wex to side with him over his brother, Pax. Here was my conflict. Here was the big decision that would push the narrative on…
So I had that much in my head for weeks, but knew it didn’t fit my normal stuff. So it just stayed in there, but as it did a world grew around it, which became the country of Orbitra and the planet of Portent. Hence the title. (It was called ‘Edge’ for awhile, but now I can’t for the life of me remember why!)
Then, in between projects, I just started writing it… and then before to long it became the next project, and ultimately the biggest tale I’ve ever told. I’m not sure who its a story for – I’ve suggested fans of Stephen King’s ‘The Dark Tower’, and GRRM’s ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ – but the important thing is that I love it, and I loved writing it.
If you fancy taking a look, I hope you love it too.
Stephen Barnard Author 