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

The third Yarnsworld novel is now available on all Amazon stores, at a special price to celebrate FINALLY getting this book out there!

Don’t draw your blade in the City of Swords, unless you’re willing to kill… or ready to die.

Young and filled with idealistic fervor, Arturo packs his blade and travels to the fabled City of Swords in the hopes of joining the dashing Bravadori. Yet upon arriving he discovers these masked vigilantes have more in common with brutal thugs than noble monster slayers. Disillusioned and mocked, he stubbornly refuses to give up his dreams.

When an impending bandit attack threatens untold depravities upon a distant village, and no others will heed the call for help, Arturo joins forces with a worthless outcast and a walking legend to attempt the impossible, to traverse the demon-haunted wilderness and prove that in the City of Swords, true heroes can rise from the unlikeliest of places.

Those Brave, Foolish Souls from the City of Swords is a gritty, action-packed standalone novel set in Benedict Patrick’s Yarnsworld, a land where folktales and fantasy mix, where the monsters from stories are real.

Start reading today to discover this epic tale of broken heroes and inspiring hope!

Head HERE now to grab that special launch price!

I’ve been sitting on this one for far too long, and it has been killing me – great to be able to finally share it with the world!

Here’s the description:

Don’t draw your blade in the City of Swords, unless you’re willing to kill… or ready to die.

Young and filled with idealistic fervor, Arturo packs his blade and travels to the fabled City of Swords in the hopes of joining the dashing Bravadori. Yet upon arriving he discovers these masked vigilantes have more in common with brutal thugs than noble monster slayers. Disillusioned and mocked, he stubbornly refuses to give up his dreams.

When an impending bandit attack threatens untold depravities upon a distant village, and no others will heed the call for help, Arturo joins forces with a worthless outcast and a walking legend to attempt the impossible, to traverse the demon-haunted wilderness and prove that in the City of Swords, true heroes can rise from the unlikeliest of places.

Those Brave, Foolish Souls from the City of Swords is a gritty, action-packed standalone novel set in Benedict Patrick’s Yarnsworld, a land where folktales and fantasy mix, where the monsters from stories are real.

Start reading today to discover this epic tale of broken heroes and inspiring hope!

Check the book out on Goodreads, and look out for the book on Amazon before the end of October!

Things are moving quickly for Those Brave, Foolish Souls from the City of Swords, the third Yarnsworld book. The book is currently out with beta readers, and should be ready for publication this Autumn. I am, as you can imagine, pretty excited, and am beginning to plan this book’s launch.

As I am sure you’re well aware, reviews help to sell books. I’m looking to put together a team of elite readers (Reading Knacks, if you will) who will get advance ebook copies of this book (and future Yarnsworld books), and I want to have YOU on the team. Basically, everyone in this ARC team (ARC stands for Advance Reader Copy, dontchaknow) will get a free digital copy of the book about a month before release, and all I ask is that in return is that you leave an honest review of the book on Amazon when it is released.

What do you have to do to get on this team? Simples – just send me an email. Well, not quite that simple – let me know you want on board, and show me you have already reviewed at least one of the other Yarnsworld books. This could be a link to a review you have previously left on one of the Amazon sites, or a review you leave right now because you want to get your hands on a novel about sword wielding, mask wearing, mouse worshipping gang members as soon as possible!

Get in touch with me at benedict@benedictpatrick.com to get your place on the team…

The title says it all, really. This year’s Self Published Fantasy Blog Off kicked off at the beginning of July, and I’m chuffed beyond imagining to let you know that the cover for Where the Waters Turn Black won the blogger vote in the cover contest, and came third in the public vote!

Last year’s SPFBO, and the exposure it brought the Yarnsworld books, was a huge boost to my author career. Huge congrats to my designer, Jenny from Seedlings Design Studio, for her win.

In last year’s competition, They Mostly Came Out At Night came third in the cover contest vote, and was a semi-finalist in the main competition. Now that Where the Waters Turn Black has stepped up regarding the cover contest, here’s hoping the writing does as well as last year…

I’m proud to announce that They Mostly Come Out At Night is being read by Reddit Fantasy’s Reading Resident Authors group this May. I’m really nervous/excited about this, and would love to see some familiar faces in the discussions. New readers are, of course, more than welcome as well!

To celebrate, HiuGregg, organiser of the reading group, has decided to reimagine the book cover, on the shortest, tattiest shoestring possible:

… HiuGregg is not currently available for commissions :p

As voted for by the Yarnsworld readers, here I am reading their favourite tale from Where the Waters Turn Black:

This is a question I’ve been getting a lot lately – what is the Yarnsworld?

The Yarnsworld is a place where folktales and fantasy meet. It is a place where monsters from stories are real.

In the Yarnsworld, the line between reality and stories isn’t quite as defined as in our own. It is a place where folktales – and a knowledge of those tales – are an important aspect of life, no matter where in the Yarnsworld people live. Knowing those stories can be the difference between life and death.

It is my own personal author playground, where I get to explore different real-world storytelling cultures through a distorted, murky mirror.

So far we’ve journeyed to three different parts of the Yarnsworld, each touching upon different cultures in our own world:

The Magpie King’s forest in They Mostly Come Out At Night is inspired by a mash-up of Brothers Grimm fairy tales and Native American legends. The stories from this setting lean towards dark fantasy horror, making you think twice about your next walk in the woods as the sun begins to set.

The Crescent Atoll from Where the Waters Turn Black draws upon Pacific island storytelling traditions. Crescent Atoll stories fit more firmly into the fantasy adventure genre, exploring the weird and wonderful aspects of a remote, detached civilization where gods and monsters walk among people.

The city of Espadapan and The Wildlands from the forthcoming Those Brave, Foolish Souls from the City of Swords are influenced by Central and Southern American mythologies. The City of Swords, and future novels in this setting, will explore a grittier part of the Yarnsworld, where morally conflicted masked swordfighters take advantage of whoever they can to rise to the top of the heap.

The Yarnsworld is a big place, and there are countless parts of it that can – and will – be visited in the future. I’m also excited to announce that the fourth Yarnsworld novel will be revisiting the Magpie King’s forest, to find out what happens after the events of They Mostly Come Out At Night, and other Yarnsworld settings will be revisited when the stories demand it.

And after that? Well, the plots have been mapped out in my head, if not on paper, but you’ll have to wait a bit longer to find out 🙂

Benedict

As voted by my readers, here I am reading their favourite tale from They Mostly Come Out At Night:

I’m planning to read you some Yarnsworld folktales, and I want you to choose! I’ll let this guy (me) explain everything:

Your choices are:
Artemis and the Three Daughters
The Magpie King and the Black Squirrel
The Magpie King and the Pies

Head over to the posts on Facebook or Twitter to cast your vote – you have one week to decide!