It took me a long time to get to this article, to announce the release of a very special book. Right, every author calls their work special. It’s their baby, their own unique creation. So, what’s different about this one? Perhaps not that much, because a story always comes from within, bled out through the pen for months on end until it finally comes to its conclusion; every author will agree on that. What then, is the difference with the May book release of Thorn Heart?

What Makes Thorn Heart so Close to My Heart?

First of all, in 2017, the manuscript for Thorn Heart was stolen from me. A fake publisher pretended to be interested in two of my manuscripts (Thorn Heart being one of them). I was over the moon, of course, to get such an opportunity, since it is not easy to find representation, but after a few months I realized that nothing was real and the man had published my books without my knowledge.

So Embarrassing, I Wanted to Stick my Head in the Ground

On top of that, he had done an abysmal job with formatting. The text went over the lines of the paperback, resulting in sentences being cut off. Book covers (which were done without my consent) were stock images that even mentioned the source name. They did not have the book’s title or my name on them …

One book cover was a picture of a bunch of onions, which had nothing to do with the story, and why would I want onions on my book cover anyway? It was truly unbelievable how he disrespected and shred my work.

The blurbs were terrible. One book which took place during the times of the French Revolution was described as a “tale in the Golden Age”. The other book (which now is Thorn Heart) had a blurb that appeared to have been written by a three-year-old, which basically damaged my reputation as an author.

Theft of my Hard Work

That man had turned this publishing venture into a public embarrassment for me. What was worse, my work had been up on Amazon in that way for five months already, without my knowledge … And in Thorn Heart (it had a different title back then) he even added his own name as “co-author”.

I was appalled, and ended up fighting a four-month battle to get the books taken down and my manuscripts back. The good thing is that I have copyright on both manuscripts, but even so, it took me a while to fix the problem with this “publisher”.

If you’d like to read the whole story and want to find out how I managed to save both my manuscripts, please click here. In the article you will also find a URL to a website that lists fishy publishers. As indie authors, we must be warned, and every author should be aware that there are many predators online.

Unfortunately, some sharks have entered the publishing industry. Before we submit our work to anyone, we must do our homework and make sure we are dealing with a real publisher.

My Work is Safe and Ready for the World

But enough of the gloomy past. It is time to celebrate, because Thorn Heart will be released this month!

The second reason why it is so special is the genre I chose. Well, I didn’t exactly choose it. The story just had to come out and it happened to do that in that particular genre.

Although I have written many fantasy novels, it is the first time that I combined the postapocalyptic genre with fantasy, and when I say fantasy, I do not mean vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and all the other usual creatures. I mean humans with incredible talents that appear superhuman (and that’s all I’m going to reveal for now) Animals also form an important part of the story, since they team up with the humans to combat a common evil.

The third reason why this story means so much to me is because of the message it carries, a message of compassion for all sentient beings.

I am not going to reveal the plot yet. I am saving that for the day of release. Nonetheless, I am really excited to share the book cover with you.

It took me a long time to get an idea for this book cover. This whole story took me a long time. When I write a story, I usually know the title for it right away, I always do, but I did not for this one. It took me years until I finally knew the right title. That was extremely uncommon for me. Then, it took me several weeks before I decided upon the design for my book cover. I usually know that within a few hours, or perhaps a few days.

I think that this book is different from everything I have ever written, and I hope that it will find many readers, for it has a beautiful message that I would love to share with everyone.

Here’s a little anecdote: when I was six years old, I wrote a similar story. Although the characters, the plot, the setting, and the time were different, the message was the same. I remember that story so well, even though it is such a long time ago. It is, however, the first book I ever wrote, and I can never forget that one.

The release for Thorn Heart is planned for 20 May 2020, so in two days! 

Book 2 is already in the making and I am close to finishing the second draft. On 17 May I also started writing down ideas for book 3. Exciting stuff!