Patrick Samphire's Blog: Letters from Mars

Coming on November 18, 2025, a new Mennik Thorn story: The Dead Man.

It’s been a while since the final novel in the Mennik Thorn series, Legacy of a Hated God was published, and now it’s time to plunge back in to Nik Thorn’s chaotic world. Taking place about a month before the events of Shadow of a Dead God, The Dead Man is a prequel novella, a chance to see what Nik’s life was like before he got caught up into the city-threatening evens of Shadow of a Dead God. Hint: Nik is just as chaotic as ever.

Here’s the book blurb:Becoming a mage-for-hire hasn’t quite turned out the way Nik Thorn hoped.

Sometimes you just have to take whatever job is on offer, whether it’s a missing pet, a curse to break, or tracking down a cheating husband. And sometimes it turns out to be something else altogether.

And if theft, murder, and blackmail aren’t enough, there’s a high mage involved.

This is not what Nik signed up for.

You can be sure to get it the moment it comes out by pre-ordering the book now.

In the meantime, keep an eye on my newsletter for more announcements and news.

– Patrick

Cover art is a stock image by Daniel Comerci.

Patrick Samphire is a fantasy author. The post Coming Soon: The Dead Man first appeared on Patrick Samphire - Fantasy Author. Content is copyright Patrick Samphire.

It’s publication day. LEGACY OF A HATED GOD, the final Mennik Thorn novel, is out in the world, waiting for you – yes, you! – to read it.

There have been four books in this series, SHADOW OF A DEAD GOD, NECTAR FOR THE GOD, STRANGE CARGON, and now LEGACY OF A HATED GOD. I’ve spent four years in the company of Nik and his friends, but now it’s finally time to leave them.

Buy Legacy of a Hated God

The first reviews have already come in for the book, and I’m delighted to say that they’ve been unanimously gushing. Thank you, reviewers!

“It’s always bittersweet reaching the climax of a series, and even more so when it has one of your favourite characters, and there is always that question of how everything is going to be wrapped up.

“Brilliantly, as it transpires.

“Legacy of a Hated God encapsulates everything that has made this series so great but turns it up yet another notch.”

– Rowena Andrews, Beneath a Thousand Skies

“Hold onto your hats, kids, this is going to be a rave.

“This is the final Mennik Thorn novel. I’m sad to see the series end, but wow, did it go out with a bang! Legacy of a Hated God took everything I loved about the previous books (and there is a lot to love) and dialed it right up to eleven.”

– Jodie Crump, Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub

“The Mennik Thorn series comes to an end in the best, most epic of ways!

“Go get this book. You will not regret it.”

– Phil Parker, fantasy author and reviewer

To everyone who has joined me on this journey, thank you! And to those of you still on the road, I’ll see you at the end!

Patrick Samphire is a fantasy author. The post Publication Day! first appeared on Patrick Samphire - Fantasy Author. Content is copyright Patrick Samphire.

In just two days, on November 2, 2023, Legacy of a Hated God, the final Mennik Thorn novel, will be out in the world.

The ebook, paperback, and hardcover will all be available on the same day (although paperback will be Amazon only for a while as it will take a couple of weeks to work its way out to the other stores; sorry).

The early reviews have been fantastic. I am so grateful to everyone who has read the book and shared their opinions, and I look forward to hearing what everyone else thought!

Let’s take a look at how the hardcover actually looks. Here’s the front cover:

And the full-wrap dustjacket:

The naked inner cover, so you can get a good look at the art without all that annoying text on top of it:

And, finally, the first page of the story as it appears in the hardcover:

If you’re looking at this on a big screen like I am, those images are probably giant, so sorry about that!

If you haven’t pre-ordered the book yet, you can still get the ebook at the special, reduced pre-order price right now:

Pre-order Legacy of a Hated God

This book has been a while in the works. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have writing it. Let me know if you did!

Patrick Samphire is a fantasy author. The post Two Days to Publication! first appeared on Patrick Samphire - Fantasy Author. Content is copyright Patrick Samphire.

LEGACY OF A HATED GOD is the final Mennik Thorn book. With its publication in November 2, 2023, the Mennik Thorn series will be complete! The cover is now public, but if you’ve missed it, here it is in full glory:

The art is, as with all books in this series, by Ömer Burak Önal.

Here’s the book description:

Nik Thorn should know better than to get involved with gods.

But when a priest of a hated god asks Nik to save his life, Nik can hardly refuse, particularly when the priest knows exactly how, where, when, and why he is going to be killed. How hard can it be?

Of course, that’s not Nik’s only problem. When is it ever? A god has been murdered, the city’s high mages are about to go to war, and fury is rising in the streets.

Agatos will burn.

And here’s the full wrap-around paperback cover:

There will, of course, also be a hardcover.

You can pre-order the book right now and benefit from the cheaper pre-order price, all the way up to publication day.

Pre-order Legacy of a Hated God

Patrick Samphire is a fantasy author. The post Legacy of a Hated God cover first appeared on Patrick Samphire - Fantasy Author. Content is copyright Patrick Samphire.

Hey, Patrick. Did you entirely forget to post the new cover for SHADOW OF A DEAD GOD? Yes. Yes, you did. Nice going.

So, yes, earlier this month the first Mennik Thorn book, Shadow of a Dead God, got a shiny new cover. It’s had a couple of covers before, the first being one I designed myself, the second a very nice piece of art that I commissioned from Ömer Burak Önal.

But, time went on, the next couple of books were released, again with art from Ömer, and the cover of Shadow no longer matched the covers of its sequels. So, I went back to Ömer and asked him for a new piece of art for Shadow. And, if you haven’t seen it already, here it is in its full glory:

And here is what it looks like with the covers for the other two books.

I hope you agree that this looks more in keeping as a series.

Here’s the wraparound cover for the paperback, too.

Oh, and here are the three versions of the cover as paperbacks next to each other.

Coming up soon, I’ll have a cover reveal for the final Mennik Thorn book, LEGACY OF A HATED GOD. And this time I won’t forget to post it here!

Patrick Samphire is the author of the middle grade adventure Secrets of the Dragon Tomb, to be published in January 2016. The post New Cover for Shadow of a Dead God first appeared on Patrick Samphire - Fantasy Author. Content is copyright Patrick Samphire.

There are two enormous book sales going on right now, and my Mennik Thorn novels, SHADOW OF A DEAD GOD, NECTAR FOR THE GOD, and STRANGE CARGO, are part of both sales. You can get all three books for 99p/99c each in the UK and US. (Sorry, Amazon doesn’t allow the same sale reductions outside those territories.)

Buy the Mennik Thorn books

First up is the SPFBO finalist sale. SPFBO is the most reputable and high profile contest for indie fantasy books, and over 40 finalists from all years, including most of this year’s finalists, are in the sale.

SPFBO finalist sale

The second sale is the Narratess Indie Sale, which includes SF and horror books alongside the fantasy. There are over 170 books in the sale.

Narratess indie sale

Go scoop up some books before the sales end!

Patrick Samphire is the author of the middle grade adventure Secrets of the Dragon Tomb, to be published in January 2016. The post The Big Indie Fantasy Book Sale first appeared on Patrick Samphire - Fantasy Author. Content is copyright Patrick Samphire.

With a certain social media site undergoing a complete meltdown and throwing a big tantrum, I thought it would be helpful to list all of the places you can find me on the web so we can keep in touch.

This website!

My newsletter

Amazon Author Page

Mastodon

Facebook

Instagram

Goodreads

Twitter

Connect with me on one or all of those! I always love to chat about books and all sorts of random stuff!

Patrick Samphire is the author of the middle grade adventure Secrets of the Dragon Tomb, to be published in January 2016. The post All My Social Media Links first appeared on Patrick Samphire - Fantasy Author. Content is copyright Patrick Samphire.

The new Mennik Thorn novel, STRANGE CARGO, is now available to pre-order. It will be published on July 29, 2022, but if you order it now, it will be waiting for you on publication day. Pre-orders are really helpful for authors, because they raise the profile of our books, so if you are thinking about getting this book, grab it now!

What do a smuggling gang, a curse that won’t go away, and a frequently lost dog have to do with each other?

Answer: they’re all here to disrupt Mennik Thorn’s hard-earned peace and quiet.

As the sole freelance mage in the city of Agatos, Mennik is used to some odd clients and awful jobs. But this time, one of his clients isn’t giving him a choice. Mennik might have forgotten about the smugglers whose operations he disrupted, but they haven’t forgotten about him. Now he is faced with a simple ultimatum: help them smuggle in an unknown, dangerous cargo or live his life in fear of their revenge.

Time is running out for Mennik to find an answer, and things are about to get completely out of control.

This is a short novel, not a full-length novel.

Pre-order now!

Patrick Samphire is the author of the middle grade adventure Secrets of the Dragon Tomb, to be published in January 2016. The post New Mennik Thorn Novel: Strange Cargo first appeared on Patrick Samphire - Thrilling Tales, Astounding Adventures. Content is copyright Patrick Samphire.

Let’s all pretend we didn’t see the clickbait headline.

One of the things that new writers often find most difficult is writing good dialogue. This is because dialogue is hard! A new writer’s dialogue will often be clunky and mechanical. So here are a few quick tips on how to make your dialogue more alive.

Dialogue is character.

What someone says, what they don’t say, and how they say it will tell you a lot about a character.

The difference between what they say, do, and think will tell you even more.

Suppose your character is afraid of stairs. They may well not come out and just say that. Maybe, when faced with stairs, they will lie. Maybe they will try to distract. Maybe they will suggest an alternate route on a spurious reason. Maybe they will tell the truth after all. Whichever option, that will allow us to understand something about their character, and their relationship with whoever else is in that scene.

Dialogue is conflict.

This doesn’t mean your characters need to be arguing or shouting all the time. It means that they each go into a conversation with a particular purpose in mind, and those purposes will probably be in conflict in some way. Your characters will try to get their particular desired outcome while avoiding the other character’s desired outcome, however minor the difference between them might be.

As a result, they will ignore what the other says, they will answer questions with questions, they will talk at cross-purposes, they will try to push their agenda in the conversation, they will try to hide information that the other character is trying to discover, and so on. Not all of these things at once, of course, but at least some of them most of the time.

Dialogue is not a way of passing information to the reader.

The worst kind of dialogue is where characters discuss something not because they need to find it out or understand it, but because the author wants the reader to learn or understand it. Doing that leads to absolutely horrible dialogue.

That’s not to say that the readers shouldn’t learn anything from the dialogue. But they should only learn it if there is an absolutely solid, irrefutable reason for the characters to be discussing it.

Dialogue is not a way of characters (directly) passing information to each other.

It’s tempting to have a character ask another questions and get direct answers in response. But that will turn your dialogue into at best a police interrogation and at worst a lecture. Straightforward question-answer dialogue in anything other than the most trivial situation is utterly dull. (See “Dialogue is conflict”.)

There are whole books on writing dialogue, but if you keep these simple hints in mind, you’ll find your writing taking on a whole new life. And that’s even before you introduce characteristic speech patterns and stuff like that.

Patrick Samphire is the author of the middle grade adventure Secrets of the Dragon Tomb, to be published in January 2016. The post Writing Great Dialogue first appeared on Patrick Samphire - Thrilling Tales, Astounding Adventures. Content is copyright Patrick Samphire.

I should have my blogging privileges revoked.

I entirely failed to mention in this blog that my latest novel, NECTAR FOR THE GOD, had been published. This was the latest instalment of my MENNIK THORN epic fantasy mystery series. And, yes, it’s out, it has been published, and it’s doing great, so thank you to everyone who has bought it, despite me failing to mention it in the blog…

Here’s the blurb:

In the city of Agatos, nothing stays buried forever.

Only an idiot would ignore his debt to a high mage, and Mennik Thorn is not an idiot, no matter what anyone might say. He’s just been … distracted. But now he’s left it too late, and if he doesn’t obey the high mage’s commands within the day, his best friends’ lives will be forfeit. So it’s hardly the time to take on an impossible case: proving a woman who murdered a stranger in full view is innocent.

Unfortunately, Mennik can’t resist doing the right thing – and now he’s caught in a deadly rivalry between warring high mages, his witnesses are dying, and something ancient has turned its eyes upon him.

The fate of the city is once again in the hands of a second-rate mage. Mennik Thorn should have stayed in hiding.

The book is available in ebook and paperback from Amazon and in hardcover from most stores.

Get it on Amazon

But NECTAR FOR THE GOD isn’t the only new thing I’ve got out. I’ve also released a short story in Nik’s world, called THE WORD FOR FRIEND IS DEATH, which you can get for free by subscribing to my newsletter.

And I’ve repackaged and redesigned my two THE CASEBOOK OF HARRIET GEORGE novellas, because honestly the covers weren’t up to standard. You can get these in ebook anywhere and in paperback from Amazon.

Buy The Dinosaur Hunters Buy A Spy in the Deep

Like I said, I should have my blogging privileges revoked. Honestly, if you want to hear regularly from me about writing, books, and so on, the best way to do that is by subscribing to my newsletter, which is regularly sent out. Alternatively, if all you want is to hear when my new books come out, you can apparently do that by following my profile on BookBub or Amazon US or Amazon UK.

Thanks for your patience, folks!

Patrick Samphire is the author of the middle grade adventure Secrets of the Dragon Tomb, to be published in January 2016. The post New books and stories first appeared on Patrick Samphire - Thrilling Tales, Astounding Adventures. Content is copyright Patrick Samphire.