Ask the Author: Derek Prior
Answered Questions (10)
Derek Prior
Hah! I'm lucky, I guess. None of it is in my head. It was a strange book to write as I planned it out in great detail, but as soon as I started to write Tey Moonshine, she took over, with the result that the book was a lot darker than I had intended! Thanks for reading!
Derek Prior
Hello Ted. So glad you enjoyed Nameless. There were originally two more stories planned, but due to publishing commitments I have had to focus on other stories. That said, there is a slim chance that there may be another (very long) Nameless Dwarf story (the last in the story arc) coming out in 2018... There are a number of factors that will determine whether I can release it, but I sure hope so. All the best!
Derek Prior
Well, it's not exactly a reboot. It will be heavily re-edited with the addition of about 100,000 words -- scenes that were mentioned as backstory, plus bridging scenes between the origins novellas and the start of Sword of the Archon. This will provide a much more linear progression and eliminate a lot of backstory. Not sure when it will be finished. I've written about 3/4s of the new scenes but other books have gotten in the way lately. Eventually!
Derek Prior
Thanks for the question. Cadman was scheduled for a return in Shader 5 and 6 (in quite an unusual way). Those projects were axed, but the planned content is still something I hope to use one day once the Shader reboot is completed over the next few years. It may also be that I use Cadman as the protagonist in some of his younger days stories, as he's one of my favorite characters too!
Derek Prior
Thanks for your question, Robert. The Nameless Dwarf books were originally a spin-off from the Shader stories, so yes, they are set in the same universe (as is Husk).
Derek Prior
I put together a Shader glossary a few years ago but have not yet published it. My plan was to include it with the Templum Knight omnibus of all the Shader material, which has been delayed by other writing commitments. Maybe sometime in 2017!
A brief glossary was included in the first edition of The Ant-Man of Malfen (Nameless Dwarf).
Much of the worldbuilding becomes clearer as the story unfolds, including some of the origins of the current world order.
A brief glossary was included in the first edition of The Ant-Man of Malfen (Nameless Dwarf).
Much of the worldbuilding becomes clearer as the story unfolds, including some of the origins of the current world order.
Derek Prior
Hello D. The best order to read is:
Carnifex: A Portent of Blood
Geas of the Black Axe
Revenge of the Lich
Return of the Dwarf Lords
Ward of the Philosopher
The Seventh Horse
Sword of the Archon
Best Laid Plans
The Unweaving
Husk
Carnifex: A Portent of Blood
Geas of the Black Axe
Revenge of the Lich
Return of the Dwarf Lords
Ward of the Philosopher
The Seventh Horse
Sword of the Archon
Best Laid Plans
The Unweaving
Husk
Derek Prior
Hello Robert. Thanks for the question. I'm currently snowed under with publishing commitments and have ended up having to work on a new three-book series. As a result, Plague Demon Chronicles, Shader, and The Nameless Dwarf have been delayed. Once I'm free to look at them again, I'll also have to make a decision about which series to prioritize. The story of Husk 2 is already sketched out in detail. It's just a matter of when I can write it.
The good news is that I'm close to finishing a novella (Dead or Alive). It's about Shadrak the assassin, but Jeb features quite extensively.
The good news is that I'm close to finishing a novella (Dead or Alive). It's about Shadrak the assassin, but Jeb features quite extensively.
Derek Prior
I get to work from home whilst making up the kind of stories I enjoy reading. Pay's not too bad, either.
Derek Prior
I'm two thirds of the way through HUSK, a standalone novel set in the Nameless Dwarf/Shader universe. Here's the working blurb:
They call them ‘husks’, the demons that cross the Farfall Mountains, leaving a trail of blood in their wake.
No incursion goes unmet; otherwise the cancer would spread until the whole of Aethir was consumed by nightmares.
That’s why the Maresmen were formed—trackers and warriors charged with holding back the tide. Each of them is different, uniquely suited to the task in hand, but one thing they hold in common: they are half-breeds, part human, part husk; and they are bound by an inviolable rule:
Hunt the husks, or be hunted themselves.
Jebediah Skayne has been hunting husks his entire adult life, but there’s something different about the trail leading to the fishing town of Portis on the shores of the Chalice Sea: no spoor, no footprints; nothing save the unmistakable feeling of wrongness.
Finding a husk in Portis would be near impossible for someone who didn’t have the sixth sense, but the instant Jeb arrives, all trace of the incursion vanishes. Forced to rely on more mundane methods of investigation, he starts to uncover a town rife with corruption, where a man will kill you for looking at a woman the wrong way; a town that’s seen its share of incursions from the land of nightmares before.
As events start to slip from his control, he realizes the husk he's come to kill is one step ahead of the game, and it holds a secret that will shake his world to the core.
They call them ‘husks’, the demons that cross the Farfall Mountains, leaving a trail of blood in their wake.
No incursion goes unmet; otherwise the cancer would spread until the whole of Aethir was consumed by nightmares.
That’s why the Maresmen were formed—trackers and warriors charged with holding back the tide. Each of them is different, uniquely suited to the task in hand, but one thing they hold in common: they are half-breeds, part human, part husk; and they are bound by an inviolable rule:
Hunt the husks, or be hunted themselves.
Jebediah Skayne has been hunting husks his entire adult life, but there’s something different about the trail leading to the fishing town of Portis on the shores of the Chalice Sea: no spoor, no footprints; nothing save the unmistakable feeling of wrongness.
Finding a husk in Portis would be near impossible for someone who didn’t have the sixth sense, but the instant Jeb arrives, all trace of the incursion vanishes. Forced to rely on more mundane methods of investigation, he starts to uncover a town rife with corruption, where a man will kill you for looking at a woman the wrong way; a town that’s seen its share of incursions from the land of nightmares before.
As events start to slip from his control, he realizes the husk he's come to kill is one step ahead of the game, and it holds a secret that will shake his world to the core.
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