Happy New Year, everyone!
Erm… Well… To honest, I’ve never been crazy for New Year. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s because I’m an historian, and I prefer looking to the past…the distant past.
I don’t usually do a ‘round-up’ post for the past year, or a ‘looking ahead’ post for New Year.
However, this year is different.
You see, 2019 is the 10-year anniversary of this blog, Writing the Past.
Amazing, right? Ten years! I still can’t believe it. I remember starting this blog on the Blogger platform (Click Here to see the old site) after hearing someone from a think-tank in Boston speak about the power and importance of blogging as a way to get ideas out into the world.
Ten years later, and here we are.
Eagles and Dragons Publishing was born out of the Writing the Pastblog. Some of you have been along for the ride since the beginning, but most of you joined this mailing list after 2016.
And let me tell you, the Eagles and Dragons publishing team and I thrilled you’re here!
For this post, I’m not going to go into the history of Writing the Past– we’ll save that for some special posts later this year – but rather, I wanted to touch on some of the great things that happened last year, and then get into what you can expect in 2019.
One of the things we were really excited about last year was the launch of Eagles and Dragons Publishing’s new non-fiction series of books, Historia.
I had been wanting to get these titles out for some time, but fiction always took precedence. However, it was enormously gratifying to see that when the first three books in the Historiaseries did come out, all three of them were #1 New Releases in the Amazon store.
Our fiction offering for 2018, however, was Saturnalia: A Tale of Wickedness and Redemption in Ancient Rome.
Most of you will be familiar with this title, as it was launched just a couple of months ago. If you missed the announcement blog, or the blog about the Roman festival of Saturnalia itself then be sure to check them out.
I’m happy to say it was pretty well-received, and I’m grateful for the emails some of you have sent me to say now much you have enjoyed this Roman retelling of a classic tale.
I think that perhaps the most exciting thing for me last year was when I finished the first drafts of the next two Eagles and Dragons novels: Isle of the Blessed, and The Stolen Throne.
I know many of you have been waiting patiently for these next books, and though it will still be a few months before they come back from the editor, 2019 will be the year!
2018, all said, was a pretty good year. Sure, there were ups and downs of different kinds, but when are there not?
But what is coming for me, and for Eagles and Dragons Publishing in 2019?
With the 10-year anniversary of Writing the Past, we’ve decided that we need to do something special. We’re not sure what yet – maybe a contest with prizes of some sort, a Facebook Live event? We’ll have to wait and see. If you have any ideas, let us know in the comments below!
For me personally, it’s about writing and new releases.
As I mentioned, the next two books in the Eagles and Dragons series are forthcoming, and I can’t wait to share them with you. They are…well…epic and moving. It has been quite a journey!
But there is also another Eagles and Dragons book that will be coming out soon, and this will be available only for Eagles and Dragons Publishing subscribers. It will not be for sale anywhere else. I’ve been writing this book for a little under two months, getting up at 5 a.m. every morning to do so. I only have two more chapters of the first draft to write and, as ever, when it comes out, there will be some accompanying ‘World of’ blog posts.
So, if you haven’t yet signed up for the mailing list, you’ll want to do so immediately so you don’t miss out! You can do that HERE.
In 2019 we will also launch the fourth book in the Historianon-fiction series. This one is exciting because it will also be accompanied by a mini-documentary that we filmed in Britain a little over a year ago. We’re still polishing off that book and sifting through the raw video footage, but itiscoming in 2019.
For those of you who are Arthurian enthusiasts and archaeologists, you will definitely be interested in Historia IV!
2019 may also see the emergence of some new endeavours for Eagles and Dragons Publishing, perhaps in the form of an on-line course. We’ll have to wait and see. However, fiction is always our focus, so we need to be mindful of time since, when it comes to history, our enthusiasm can indeed get the better of us!
But that’s a good thing!
There will of course continue to be bi-weekly blog posts in the Ancient Everyday and Roman Ghosts series, as well as one-off posts about various topics on ancient and medieval history, archaeology, writing and more. And if you are one of our special Patreon patrons, then you can expect some special offerings just for you throughout the year, such as short stories and behind-the-scene pics and sneak-peeks! If any of you’re interested in becoming a patron, you can check out the website HERE and watch me in my awkward, but honest video.
There is a lot more Eagles and Dragons Publishing would like to do, and you can see the list of these goals on the Patreon page. Who knows? Perhaps someday, we’ll get there!
In the meantime, I just want to say that the Eagles and Dragons Publishing team and I are thrilled to have you along for this amazing journey into the past through our fiction, the blog, non-fiction and more. It really isan honour to create content for you, so if there is anything you would like to see more of, let us know in the comments below or send us a message through the Contact Us page.
May 2019 be an epic year for us all!
Thank you for reading.
