Author: Peter Hackshaw - Author

I’ve shed the skin of 2025, which was really a challenge where my creative brain switched off.

It’s back. I’ve stopped moaning about it. Now I just need to get the work done!

The year of the Fire Horse holds a lot of promise for me personally – after years of discussion about a project – the universe is aligning, I had an incredible meeting last month in an incredible location, with incredible people, which I can’t go into. When I can, it will be on this page first!

What I can talk about is that Netherdei #3 – Oblivion – will be released in 2026 and then I am cracking-on with one, potentially two new books that take me back to my sci-fi roots.

WHAT ELSE?

We are (FINALLY) moving house this month, after it all went belly-up last summer. The house is a Grade II listed thatched cottage from the 15th century. Perfect for writing and inspiration.

What I’m unsure of is whether to save up money first for a telescope, or a metal detector. I am that geek / that geeky!

Also – Burgers – I realised that I am so against the concept of eating a burger with a knife and fork, that I will only order a burger if it looks like you can hold it with two hands and eat it like an actual burger. Otherwise, it’s not a burger. No cutlery for burgers. Ever.

Hope the year ahead is a great one for you.

Peter

Netherdei #2 – The Darkest Core – releases Thursday 12th October and you can now pre-order the Kindle version of the book on Amazon.

https://clipchamp.com/watch/FMHKNTeWpGN/embed

Click on the above link to see a cheeky little book for The Darkest Core.

The paperback and audio versions (also releasing on the 12th Oct) should appear on Amazon shortly, so keep an eye out.

I’m really proud of The Darkest Core and much of that is down to the work and support of Brook, Matt and Anthony at Portal Books!

For a writer, this is literally the most stressful part of all; a week either side of release. If I had a secret shack in the woods somewhere, this is the time I’d go missing and resurface in a month or so. Unkept in the aftermath, when the book is ‘out’ and you just can’t do a thing about it anymore.

I hope you will love The Darkest Core as much as I do.

Thanks for reading and following.

Peter.

‘A thing of beauty.’

I’m extremely proud to reveal the cover for Netherdei #2 – The Darkest Core.

This brilliant artwork is once again the creation of Seoul-based artist Mansik Yang (Yam), who was responsible for the gnarly cover for The Shadow Sect.

The colours of the first book of this series hinted at the uniforms and mana of the Ardent Lunar sect – and Falken is depicted on the cover lighting up the dark of what we learn to be the oubliette.

The same colours bleed into the cover of book two, in the petals of the cherry-blossom.

Falken is a little older and the clothes he is wearing are for a new journey and a change in season.

The cherry-blossom tree not only hints at the geographical shift in the where the story takes us in The Darkest Core, but also one of several new horrors that must be faced.

I hope you love this art as much as I do.

I hope you love the books and the audio even more.

I wanted to share this with you here on my website – and only here – until Portal Books and myself release further news on the release date.

So mote it be.

This lovely pro narrator is Joe Jameson, who has been busy narrating Netherdei book two, The Darkest Core.

Joe has been asking lots of questions about characters, dialogue and things in a novel that you take for granted when narration comes into play.

I admitted something to Joe this week that I thought I’d share – and I have no idea if this is a ‘thing’ with authors who have ventured beyond stand-alone novels, into the realm of penning a series, or saga – or if it’s just me(?)

If you’ve read The Shadow Sect, Netherdei #1, you might recall a character who appears in the inn at Gunwalloe, who I’ve affectionally called ‘the old mumblecrust’.

A Mumblecrust was a term used in the medieval times for a toothless beggar. It was typical of theatre plays in those times to feature a mumblecrust as a stock character, usually for laughs.

I featured a version of this character in a scene where Falken learns that you need a net to catch a wisp.

I had no intention of doing more with the character. It was a nice little cameo to move the story along and support that theme of knowledge and rumours being passed through conversations in inns, in the absence of tech.

When I heard the narration that Joe did for The Shadow Sect, this fleeting introduction to the mumblecrust, became one of my favourite scenes – and the voice that Joe gave the character left me wishing I’d included more of the old beggar. The Mumblecrust, not Joe.

In The Darkest Core, our dear old friend returns, with a piece of dialogue that I wrote with Joe’s voice in my head as the character and it took me just a moment to have the epiphany that I’d re-introduced the character purely from the influence of the narrator. That’s an absolute luxury as a writer. To have the voice on a plate, so clear in your head.

I wonder if others experience the same? Or if I’m just so easily led? Subliminally, or otherwise.

It goes to show what happens when creatives and creative arts combine.

I can’t wait to hear the end result!

The recording of The Darkest Core – Netherdei #2 will touch down soon and once again I have been lucky enough to secure the legend that is Joe Jameson for my narration.

Joe is in high demand, having narrated books for fantasy greats Mark Lawrence, Leigh Bardugo, Sebastien de Castell and of course the brilliant Forge of War: Warhammer 40,000 – amongst many, many other huge titles.

Netherdei map creator and artist, Ursula Armstrong has once again provided the art-work to feature in the paperback version of the book and the cover itself is the work of the masterful Mansik Yang (YAM).

The Darkest Core is quite a bit longer than The Shadow Sect and takes Falken to the Hidden Realm and Diyu, to unlock the mysteries of his obsidian sword and the affinity of Shadow.

Huge thanks to Matt Prince and Anthony Wright for editing and the entire team at Portal Books.

As soon as I get the date for release – which I expect in a matter of weeks – I will share it on here first!

It’s been a huge lift for me to see that The Shadow Sect was selected by Audible as a Deal of the Day, which has seen it leap back up the charts to #3 in Audible globally and #13 in US Amazon (all genres).

I’m going to bed now and don’t expect it to climb further, but this is a wonderful, unexpected piece of insanity that is most welcome – and perfectly timed. It really is!

I’ve just seen the audio fly to being US Amazon Best-Seller for Science Fiction & Fantasy (and the sub-genres; Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Epic Fantasy) and Horror.

If that isn’t a wake-up call, I don’t know what is!

I’ve booked a writing retreat. I’d better get myself into gear for Netherdei #2!!

Huge thanks once again, to Joe Jameson, who narrated The Shadow Sect and deserves recognition for his great performance. The Ol’ Mumblecrust is still my favourite!

There is a glass award on my bookshelf of dreams, for a short story I wrote in 2017.

I wrote that story under a pen-name, because I was trying to build my confidence as a writer and work out what genre suited me.

The award night was to be held in an old London cinema, but I was in Spain at the time and a friend kindly went in my place – and got the shock of his life when he had to make up a speech on my behalf.

I love that award, because it gave me the confidence to write Ever Winter, under my real name.

Last night, my son and I sat up to watch a stream of the 2021 SOVAS Voice Arts Awards, as Ever Winter had been nominated via an incredible Dan Stevens performance of the audio.

It’s Dan’s nomination, of course. It’s about his brilliant performance. Yet, last night, the award was a royal ‘we’ – belonging to Dan, my son and I.

Being a typical dad, I couldn’t get the live stream to work and my tired lad went to bed and I did the same, only to wake up with a crazy number of phone messages, informing me that the royal we (Dan), had won.

I’ve genuinely never expected even nominations for any of my work, directly or otherwise, because (aside from Dan’s credentials), I write part-time outside of a day job and my books aren’t in the shops. Which is the measure for a lot of people who ask about my writing – ‘Why aren’t your books in the shops yet?’

Part of me is still in 2017, hiding under a pen-name and this is where the imposter syndrome kicks in.

Today, I gave myself a break. Any recognition at all, adds hope that I am heading in the right direction. To any writers reading this – give yourself a break.

My one regret, is not booking a plane ticket to the event, hiring a tux and trying to blag my way in with my Essex-boy accent, on the off-chance I might’ve got to meet rap legend DC The Brain Supreme, #DCGlenn #tagteam.

WHOOP THERE IT IS!