Reviews and Interviews For Mask of Silver

ALMOST done with 2020! And while it is not a year that I'd care to repeat, it was not without some pleasures. The biggest one for me was diving back into writing, meeting a whole new crew of shared world wordslingers, and completing Mask of Silver. In case you want to know the timeline of "board game to novel" project, the original contract was signed back in July 2019, the first draft written in late 2019 and early 2020 before the bottom dropped out of the world, then came the revisions and the usual editorial back-and-forth finishing up in fall 2020. The book goes on sale in January/February 2021 (pandemic delayed the UK trade paperback). 

In December, I had the pleasure of doing an interview with Track of Words about the inspirations for the novel.  I tried to touch on some topics not covered in the Aconyte interview published earlier in the year. And I enjoyed the holiday season games with fellow Aconyte authors and employees courtesy of the very nice Anjuli. You can see my bookshelves and sleep deprived self on the Aconyte Facebook page. Anjuli's parrot also swoops in for a cameo or two. (If you wonder about the sleep deprived, evening for Aconyte is early morning for me, courtesy of that time zone thingie).

Early reviews are out on Goodreads too, all very thoughtful and giving me something to think about. My favorite quote has to be:  "one of the best book-spinoffs from a board game I've ever read." 

I found it to be an interesting task to weave a tale out of fantasy game like Arkham Horror and  remain true to the time period (1920s). All the authors in the Arkham Horror line tackled this differently and it's been a pleasure to see how the town of Arkham continues to grow in its fictional universe. 

There's more writing projects in 2021, including wrapping up a fresh take on the Grimm fairytale "Hans My Hedgehog." Until then, Happy New Year to you! Hope to see you at the movies....

And another review out in 2021, which in January still feels like an extension of 2020! The reviewer particularly liked the historical research as much as the fantasy, which was one of the best parts of writing in this shared world for me. Here's what Fistful of Meeples had to say:

...what you end up with is a depiction of 1920s America that never feels anything less than 100% real. This is absolutely crucial to this kind of insidious horror: rather than being able to dismiss this tale as something fantastical set in a place clearly of the imagination, instead you have something that feels like real history, a carefully restored picture of 1920s America – as such, when the creepy stuff starts to happen, you can almost start to wonder whether your mirror is reflecting things at an angle that should not be possible? whether the crows outside your window are giving you funny looks...

It's always nice when a reader falls in love with a character that you've been living with for several years. Jeany is one of my favorite ladies and I agree with the reviewer who says that she deserves a bit of a rest at the end from the horrors of Arkham.

Also the crows are looking at you with deep thoughts in their heads.  That's what they do.