Insider 08-23-2016


“The Ballad of Skull Island”

(with no apologies to Gilligan)

Just sit right back, and you’ll hear a tale
A tale of a pirate book
That features Shae and hints of Zu
November, you can look

But wait, we’ll have two more books by then
The Mark of Caine for sure
And Black Dogs stars the BRI
For a three-novel tour
A three-novel tour

The first book in each trilogy
(And we’re planning even more)
Irregulars and renegades
And an Undercity war
An Undercity war…

These tales will be published soon on this
Uncharted skeletal isle…
With Allister
That’s Caine, you know
The BRI
Now with Pog!
Watery Graves…
(And Tristan Durant, we have planned)
Soon from Skull Island!

***

So…a number of Philistines around me have said my television homage, which can also be sung to the tune of “Amazing Grace,” is insufficiently detailed. So be it. The director’s commentary looks like this…

In November, the first book in our Privateers series features the pirate captain Phinneus Shae in Watery Graves by Chris Jackson, which hints a bit about the mysterious continent of Zu. Before then, two more books will come out in October—Mark of Caine by Miles Holmes (featuring Allister Caine, of course) and Black Dogs by Richard Lee Byers, both the first books in projected trilogies (the Hellslingers and the Black River Irregulars, respectively). The latter follows up on the popular novella “Murder in Corvis” and features a massive battle for control of the Undercity. The presence of the gobber Pog just shows how he’s a regular with the Irregulars now.

Finally, Tristan Durant is the key character in an upcoming Protectorate series (2017). And the rest? I didn’t even get to mention an original fiction zombie series we have planned or the Malakov book we’re currently outlining. The rest, I can’t tell you about—no phones, no lights, no motorcars.

So, there we go: the full three-hour tour of Skull Island. I concede it’s primitive as can be, but at least you can sing the tune and know our lineup for the next six months!

No