Igor Rendić's Blog

Early this morning, the third and final book in the A Town Called River trilogy came out in e-book (paperback coming soon!).

Am I excited? Of course! It’s also surreal (I’ve said that for the previous two books too, I know) because one day you’re an aspiring novelist in 2020 and then somehow it’s 2024 and you’ve finished a trilogy.

The entire road has been both long and short because what is time and space warps in the strangest ways. I still remember talking to Antonija, her asking me if I have anything to submit to Vesna and her’s publishing cottage, and recalling something I’d been noodling with for a few weeks the year before. When I started writing A Town Called River I wondered if even it will come out good let alone if I’ll be able to do a sequel… and then what seemed like a distant finishing line (writing an entire trilogy about Paul) suddenly became a thing behind me.

And so here I am, staring at the screen and the “Out Now” above the image of *my* *third* *novel* and the sense of accomplishment is real and there’s not a peep from my impostor syndrome so… yay!

A River in the Dark

Yep, that’s the cover. Once again Korin Hunjak knocks it out of the park.

With this one the story of how Paul became a krsnik in his own right instead of just a guy who had all the magic and legacy and troubles dumped on him comes to a close and it’s… weird. I say that a lot with regards to my feelings about the entire publishing journey of A Town Called River trilogy, mostly because it is weird. Not that long ago I had only dreams about publishing *a* novel and here I am now, with *three*.

As per usual there’s magic and danger and friendship and food.

I’ll have more to say once the novel is out, but for now the preorder links are here, if you’re interested.

Ovo mi je jedan od najdražih projekata u kojima sam sudjelovao: zbirka horor priča o ukletim kućama, naslovljena “Posljednja kuća u Šenoinoj ulici”. Sam je naziv krenuo kao usputna zezancija između Antonije Mežnarić i mene, a onda se nekako pretvorio u pravu zbirku s puno jako, jako kul autora i sjajnih priča i naravno Antonijom kao urednicom.

Sama je priča moj povratak podžanru u kojem sam se već okušao 2020. s pričom “Obješeni muškarac“, ovog puta sa pokušajem da napravim nešto flanaganovski istovremeno mračno, tužno i s dozom romantike. Kako sam uspio u tome, procijenit će čitatelji…

Zbirka je dostupna u elektroničkom izdanju na svim uobičajenim mjestima, a u pripremi je i meko izdanje, stoga pratite Shtriga Books!

Here it is Last summer I was contacted by Boris Hokr, editor at the Czech scifi publishing house Laser books. He said he’s interested in translating ATCR into Czech, I said um yes please and here we are, a little less than a year later.

I’m really glad they kept the cover illustration by the amazing Korin Hunjak.

This is surreal and exciting and also, I wonder what the reception of ATCR will be among Czech sf readers!

Guys, the paperback is here and it’s a big one! Definitely a case of the younger sibling outgrowing the firstborn. Here’s the full promo from my publisher:

From fall to summer, a krsnik’s job stays the same.

It’s not summer, or fall, but the first days of spring brought us the paperback format of our action-packed Slavic urban fantasy novel Seasons of the River by Igor Rendić, book two of A Town Called River trilogy.

For all lovers of physical copies, you can now take this book with you to the park and enjoy the adventure, Slavic mythology, love, friendship, cozy slice-of-life, and action, of Paul and his fairy love and witchy gang of supernatural protectors. Get the paperback now from your closest Amazon marketplace. Ebook is available in a wide distribution.

Becoming a krsnik, a magic user from Slavic myths which have turned real in the streets of Rijeka, was not what Paul expected upon his return to his hometown, but an intense first few days in his new role in A Town Called River helped him settle into his newfound life as the town’s protector.

Now a new threat looms over his town, growing ever larger and more dangerous, ready to wreak havoc once it spreads out from the river’s canyon in the hills. Conflicted  about his private life and his duties as a krsnik, fixing issues big and small, making enemies and dangerous allies along the way, Paul will have to solve the mystery while balancing the weight of his new responsibilities.

As the seasons change and summer sweeps over the horizon once more, Paul and his friends may just find themselves facing a battle they can’t win… a battle that their town cannot afford to lose.

The gorgeous cover illustration is by the talented Korin Hunjak, go and check out their work at Instagram, Facebook or webpage.

Yes, you read that right. A Town Called River will be getting a Czech translation, out in 2024, possibly 2025 (publishing isn’t an exact science – or a science at all, in fact). The publisher is Laser, who contacted me during the summer and we’ve been having a very pleasant and straightforward cooperation so far. The contract has been signed, which makes it real and so I finally feel comfortable sharing it with all you guys and honestly, I can’t wait!

It’s out and I’m delighted and still a little confused because now I have two published novels. Once may be luck, but twice is kinda intentional, isn’t it? Anyways, you can find all about the novel and the purchase links at my publisher’s website; currently only the epub is available but a print on demand paperback is forthcoming!

That’s it, that’s the news. Find all the info (including preorder link) here and join me in marvelling the beauty of the cover.

2022. je u pravilu bila dobra godina, kako poslovno tako i privatno, ali nadam se da će u oba aspekta 2023. biti još bolja jer, ono, zašto ne.

Pročitao sam hrpu dobrih knjiga i stripova, poslušao dobrih audio knjiga i podcasta, pogledao dobrih filmova, serija, a i pokoji stand up nastup uživo.

Sa spisateljske strane, godina je bila najvećim dijelom posvećena radu na nastavku A Town Called River, radnog naslova Seasons of the River. U trenutku dok ovo pišem preostalo mi je još samo par prepravki i dodavanja, nakon kojih rukopis ide natrag urednici i započinje time konačna faza koja bi trebala – nadamo se i izdavač i ja – rezultirati objavom nastavka u rano proljeće 2023.

Osim nastavka ATCR, ove sam godine po prvi put pisao spekulativnu fikciju za njemačku publikaciju, ali o tome više kad ista bude objavljena u nekom trenutku 2023. Ovo je inače prvi put da javno spominjem taj mali projekt tako da eto, prvi ste put to ovdje čuli

Morina kutija, online časopis za spekulativnu fikciju koju uređujem s Antonijom i Vesnom ove godine ne samo da je izbacila oba planirana broja (3. i 4.), već smo pokrenuli i podcast! Mora FM je mjesto na kojem pričamo o pisanju, a u trenutku dok ovo pišem, negdje smo na pola emitiranja i snimanja druge sezone, nakon što smo već čitavu prvu snimili i objavili na tjednoj bazi ovog proljeća i ljeta.

I za kraj jedna lijepa slika, svi moji objavljeni prijevodi romana za ovu godinu:

Sve najbolje svima nama u 2023!

I was writing the first draft of Seasons of the River (working title) from very early January to late June of 2022.

I had only a very general idea of the plot and character arcs. I knew where the story starts and where it ends, I had a rough idea of certain plot points that occur between A and Z, I knew where I wanted to take certain characters and where they should be at the end. As for everything else, which was, well, 98% of the book to be, I figured that out during those six months.

For the most part, writing Seasons of the River was hardcore discovery writing: seeing where the story and characters take me as I write. There were weeks where I’d write thousands of words, there were weeks where I’d write maybe a hundred total. There were times where I could see the path ahead so clearly, and there were weeks where I’d wonder what the heck was supposed to happen next.

And there were moments of deep, dark dread that I was way in over my head, that what I’d outlined was in fact material for three novels and not one, that I was on my way to submitting a 500k+ monster that my publisher would look at and say “no way we are publishing this”.

I didn’t and they haven’t. Yet.

I can’t talk about any details of the plot and characters, but there’s someting I wanted to say.

The moment I finished the draft, I immediately sent it off to my editor for two reasons: one, I just wanted to be done with the damn thing for the time being and not have to think about it for at least a few weeks, and two, I did not want to give myself the opportunity to start fiddling and tinkering.

Your first draft is absolutely not where you’re supposed to tinker or fiddle. That comes later, much, much later. You think you should maybe go back now and add details about the MC’s hair color or the weather in the fifth chapter or change the kind of wine your characters were drinking in chapter seventeen – write down a note and leave it for later. If you start doing those things now, while the entire text is in a very raw state, you’ll be focusing on adjusting individual strands of hair while there’s still actual flesh, organs and even bones to add to your creation and the skin is still nowhere to be seen.

So don’t do it. Send it to your editor, or if you don’t want to do that just yet – many writers actually prefer sending their second or third draft – send it to your alpha or beta readers or just lock it in a proverbial drawer and don’t look at it for at least a week. Let your mind and body relax, recover your energy, clear your head.

It’s not easy for me. If I’m doing a project, be it writing or translating or conrunning, I have a tendency to bury myself in work and not stop until I’m fatigued. I’ve had to lifehack myself and build discipline to make myself take regular breaks, to divide work into daily and weekly chunks and not go over those self-imposed limits. Because burnout isn’t fun, be it in the middle of a project or just after it’s done – you don’t really enjoy having accomplished something if you’re kinda empty inside and all you want to do is lie on your bed and scroll your social media, completely unfocused on what is actually on the screen.

And so, the moment I finished writing the first, rough draft – putting down all that happens in the novel from start to finish, writing down the story that will, over the course of editing and revisions become a novel – I catapulted it at my editor and said “Here, you deal with it for a while”.

And she is doing so and once she is done I’ll get her first round of comments, after which I’ll get down to revising the first draft, turning it into the second.

But that is for another post…