I want to talk to you about a guy called Brandon Barr. You may have heard about him. Brandon is a USA Today bestselling fantasy author. Brandon is a husband, and father to three boys.
Brandon is dying.
That’s a pretty bitter pill to swallow, and I’m truly sorry to darken your day with this news, but there is a slight silver lining to this terrible story.
Despite his health issues, Brandon has worked hard to complete a new fantasy series, to provide for his family after he is gone. He succeeded, and released the first book last week.
Here it is:

The support from the fantasy community for Rise of the Seer has been phenomenal, and the book has already been tearing up the charts online (as well as gathering a crazy amount of critical success).

You read this blog because you like reading fantasy books.

Today, you can get an awesome book, AND make a huge difference to a family going through hell.

Head HERE to find out more about Brandon, his books, and how we can all help.

Talk to you soon,

Benedict

I just wanted to give a short ‘thank you’ to everyone reading this.

From the Shadows of the Owl Queen’s Court has easily been my best ever launch, both from a sales perspective, and from the reviews the book has garnered so far.

Here are a few words people shared about Shadows that really made me blush:

‘Take heed, all ye edgy writers of fantasy and fairy tales: This is how you write a dark story without a whiff of gratuitous violence!’ – Filip at Booknest.eu

‘There’s a bit of swearing, a bit of sexy times, and a bit of some really questionable produce. Emotions happened, and I’m definitely okay with that.’ – Superstardrifter

‘From The Shadows Of The Owl Queen’s Court is a very dark tale about chasing your dreams, about nature having its own way in the end.’ – Timy at Fantasy Book Review

‘…as I’ve come to experience with Patrick’s books to date, he delivers yet another completely out of this world, seamless and imaginative story.’ – Liz from Cover 2 Cover

‘There is a lot of magic here, and great danger as well.’ – Lynn from the Grimmedian

‘To say the story gripped me is an understatement. The myths brought to life are so fascinating and that ending just had me focused so much that I could have easily missed my train stop if it hadn’t been the last stop on the line’ – David at David’s Book Blurg

This is just a small selection of the kind words people have said about ‘Shadows’ so far, and I am ever grateful for people taking the time to do so.

If you have not yet grabbed your copy of From the Shadows of the Owl Queen’s Court, get it now from one of these links:

Amazon US

Other Amazon Stores

If you already have read it, I’d like to ask you to take the time to drop an honest review of the book – I spend a lot of time looking at sales data, and it is clear to me that having more reviews up on the Amazon stores has a major impact on whether or not people browsing online are willing to give a new author a shot.

Please just take a second to let the world know what you thought about the book.

It’s here! From the Shadows of the Owl Queen’s Court is now live on Amazon stores worldwide!

Click below now to return to the Magpie King’s forest:

Amazon US

Other Amazon Stores

As a special celebration, the first Yarnsworld novel, They Mostly Come Out At Night, is FREE for this weekend on all Amazon stores!

I know you’ll already have a copy of the book, but feel free to share the link below to your friends, loved ones, neighbours, that guy you bumped into at the supermarket one time etc…

Head here for FREE delightful darkness…

Exciting times, and thank you for your support every step of the way!

Hope you enjoy the new book, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the return to the Magpie King’s forest…

Until next time, take care,

Benedict

After weeks of teasing, here it is – the cover for the next Yarnsworld book, From the Shadows of the Owl Queen’s Court!

And the best news is, the release date is only a few weeks away – 26th September! You can preorder your copy now, so you can dive back into the mysterious forest of the Magpie King as soon as the book goes live:

Amazon US

Other Amazon Stores

I know two weeks can still be a long time to wait, so I’ve got some Yarnsworld goodness for you TODAY!

After you preorder your copy, send an image of your receipt to me at benedict@benedictpatrick.com and you will get an exclusive  Yarnsworld folktale – The Fall of the Magpie King.

This story shows how the people of the Magpie King’s forest recall the events of They Mostly Come Out At Night, decades after it happened.

The question is: how accurately are those events remembered?

You’ve got to hurry, however, as The Fall of the Magpie King is only available before 26th September, so grab your copy today to not miss out!

As you can imagine, I’m a heady combination of excited and knackered right now, so time for me to go and lie down.

I just wanted to say thanks to you for hanging out on the journey to get this book into the world, and I can’t wait for you to meet Nascha, Bradan, and all the other denizens of the forest…

Until then, take care,

Benedict

Just a quick message today, to draw your attention to something very strange that has popped up over at the Fantasy Inn Blog:

#owlqueenscourt pic.twitter.com/eO4F3IbZry

— The Fantasy Inn (@TheFantasyInn) September 1, 2018

Whatever could this mean? Keep an eye on the Fantasy Inn’s blog to check out any future updates to this mystery (and to get a sneak peek NOW of the official description for From the Shadows of the Owl Queen’s Court)!

Giveaway!

Timy over at Starlitbook.com is having a giveaway to celebrate her blog’s six month anniversary, and I’m taking part in the festivities! Timy has been a longtime Yarnsworld reader, and her blog has already caught a lot of attention in its first few months of existence. Head over there to check it out, and to try your luck at winning some top notch fantasy reads.

That’s all for now, folks. Hopefully this book cover jigsaw will be solved in… oh, I don’t know, about twelve days? If so, I’ll be in touch then with a full cover reveal.

Until then, take care,

Benedict

I said I would be better about staying in touch, and here I am!
This is what I’ve got for you today:

– A weekly podcast
– Book 4’s folktales!

Time to get Crit Faced!

Last time I spoke, I mentioned a few things had been going on that I had neglected to tell you about. Crit Faced is one of those things.

For the past few years, myself and some fantasy author buddies (Josiah Bancroft, David Benem, Timandra Whitecastle and Philip Tucker) have been meeting up online to play Dungeons & Dragons together, and earlier this year we started a weekly podcast of our gaming sessions.

The podcast is madness – these guys are hilarious to listen to, and the characters they have come up with are fascinating. You don’t need to be a DnD fan to enjoy the story we are telling together.

From the Shadows of the Owl Queen’s Court

Book 4 releases next month!

To celebrate, as promised last time, here are the titles of the folktales featured in ‘Shadows’:

Tadita and the Acorns
Beyond the Border
The Fox’s Castle
The Girl and the Lake
The Owl Queen and the Serpents
The Lion Knight’s Quest
The First Man of the Forest
Artemis and the Owl Queen
The Claiming of the Woods

What do they mean? Who are they about? Not long now until you find out!

And next time I get in touch, it’ll be the moment everyone is waiting for – time to talk about the book cover.

I can’t wait!

Until then, take care,

Benedict

It’s been a while since I’ve been in touch. First up, huge apologies for that. I’ve been crazy-busy, and I’ll catch you up soon. However, the grovelling is not what I’m here for today.

I’ve had a lot of luck in my short author career so far. I’ve made a lot of contacts, and I get to hang out online with some pretty cool people. How cool? Just check the collection of covers and authors below. Pretty fricking cool, right? And yes, that is mother-flipping international bestseller Michael J. Sullivan. We hang. It’s no big deal. (Totally a huge deal).
Ahem.
Anyway, ’tis the month of May, and my author buddies and I have decided to team up and offer our readers some pretty crazy deals on our stories. Behold!

Head on over to our SALE PAGE right now to check out all the goodies on offer over there. Many of the authors involved have some deeply discounted titles on there (including my own Where the Waters Turn Black, which is only 99c/99p on the Amazon stores for the next few days).
The other Yarnsworld novels have money off them as well, and I’ve made sure that The Yarnsworld Collection is still the best way to get the whole set, even with all the other discounts going on.

I’ll be back in touch really soon to update you on all the changes over the past few months, and to give a bit more info on when the next Yarnsworld book will be ready.

Until then, take care, and happy shopping!

Benedict

Just a quick message to let you know about the release of the FREE fantasy anthology, Lost Lore, which includes a Yarnsworld tale from me, set in the forest of the Magpie King!

I’ve teamed up with the cream of the crop of established and up-and-coming fantasy authors to bring you fifteen tales that serve as great standalone reads, or as introductions to our storytelling worlds. We even have an introduction from fantasy bestseller Mark Lawrence, whose SPFBO competition was responsible for bringing so many of us together.

Lost Lore is FREE now, and is available on Amazon and, as a Yarnsworld first, is also free on Kobo, iBooks and Google Play.

I’d also like to invite you along to the Lost Lore Readalong. Starting on Saturday 3rd February, a bunch of us (including many of the Lost Lore authors) are going to be reading Lost Lore together, meeting on Goodreads and chatting about one story from the anthology every day. This is my first time being involved in something like this, and I’d love to see some Yarnsworld readers in there – feel free to jump in and say hi to the group!

That’s everything from me. I hope you enjoy Lost Lore, I REALLY hope you enjoy my tale, ‘And They Were Never Heard From Again’, and I’m looking forward to chatting to you on Goodreads soon.

Until then, take care,

Benedict

I hope 2018 has gotten off to a good start. My family and I are still recovering from the holiday season – my son is still building all of his Lego from Christmas, and my daughter has embarked on a massive Harry Potter binge (which I’m more than happy to join her in!).

Me, with my Krampus. He is my favourite, and my best.

My thoughts on 2017

I’m not big into making Top Ten lists, mostly because I struggle to figure out what order everything should be in. Instead, here are a few of my geeky highlights from last year:

– Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames. I was not expecting this book to be so… fun. It’s been a very long time since I’ve laughed so much when reading (or in this case, listening to) a novel.
– The Last Jedi. This one is going to be contentious, but I had a blast with this film. Is it perfect? No way. But I left the cinema with a smile on my face. I had a similar experience with Thor: Ragnarok – it pushed my buttons in just the right way. I also enjoyed IT, which surprised me, as horror is usually not my genre.
– Touch of Iron by Timandra Whitecastle. I’ve been friends with Tim for a while, but only checked out her series at the end of the year. Big mistake to leave it so long. A harsh world, with a great relationship brewing between the two mains. Looking forward to finishing the series in 2018.
– Stranger Things 2. My love of this show is probably the reason I enjoyed IT, because both shared the same Goonies-esque vibe (and an actor, of course). Game of Thrones remains a top social viewing experience, even if the quality dropped a bit in last year’s season.
– Sufficiently Advanced Magic by Andrew Rowe. One of the big indie hits of last year, and the first book to make me take LitRPG seriously.
– Nintendo Switch. We got one earlier in the year, and the different co-op modes on games mean this is the first console that my son and I (and often our whole family) play together regularly.

I’m sure as soon as I post this, a dozen more highlights will spring to mind. Don’t be shy, though – do you disagree with anything above? (I just opened a can of Star Wars with that question, didn’t I?) What were your 2017 highlights?

They Mostly Come Out At Night 99c Sale!

I have big plans for the Yarnsworld this year (and I’ll talk more about that in my next post), but it all kicks off right now with a 99c sale on They Mostly Come Out At Night. I’m sure you’ve got your hands on the book already, but feel free to share the news if you think anyone else would love to dive into the Magpie King’s forest…

That’s all from me today. I’ll be back soon with news on Lost Lore, the free fantasy anthology I’m part of that is coming out this month.

Talk to you soon, and remember to let me know about your 2017 highlights!

Benedict