Interview with G D Penman, THE YEAR OF THE KNIFE

 Can you give us a brief overview of your latest book? Is it part of a series?

The Year of the Knife is a hardboiled detective novel set in an alternate America where magic exists and the British Empire never left. It follows Sully, an Agent of the Empire, as she tries to track down a body-hopping serial killer, manage her undead love-life and deal with her boss being turned into a parrot. And yes, it will absolutely be a series if enough people buy the first book.

Do you have a favorite character?

I have a soft spot for Raavi. Here is a person with no magic, in a world filled with monsters and mysteries, and his first response is to dive in face first and try to work out how everything works.

How long before you got your offer of representation/your first contract? Was it for your first novel?
The Year of the Knife is my second novel, with the first; Call Your Steel, coming out a short while ago. I have sold every novel that I have written so far, which is apparently some sort of miracle in publishing. Although I will be the first to admit that there was a long time between the book being finished and a publisher accepting it.

What factors influenced your decision to go with a particular agent or publisher?
Meerkat Press are an independent publisher, but they have behaved like professionals from the first moment that I got in touch with them. I can’t lavish enough praise on Tricia and her amazing team.

Are you currently under a traditional publishing contract for future books or do you have manuscripts that you will self-publish? Are you doing both?

Any future Sully books will be coming out through Meerkat Press, but I have a short story collection that I plan to self-publish in the near future, once all the rights have reverted to me.

If you used a graphic designer/publisher’s designer, how involved were you during the creative process for your cover?
Once again, the team at Meerkat Press were absolutely fantastic. We had several brainstorming sessions and went back and forth on the design for a while until we settled on one that we all agreed on.

What is your writing process? Do you listen to music or do you like silence?

I can’t listen to anything with lyrics while I am writing or I just end up typing them out. My brain has a short circuit somewhere. If I need to block out the sounds of my wailing children then I have to rely on instrumental music.

Do you outline your story or just go where your muse takes you?
Nowadays, I outline everything, but that is because I ghostwrite for a living and I do not have the luxury of dithering off topic for a month at a time.

Besides Amazon, are there any other sites where your books are for sale?

The full list of retailers should be here: http://meerkatpress.com/books/the-year-of-the-knife/

 
The book has worldwide distribution, so in theory you can just pop into any book store and ask for it.

Do you find it difficult to juggle your time between marketing your current book and writing your next book?
I try to schedule time to handle the marketing work, just as I try to schedule writing time, but there aren’t enough hours in the day.

What’s next for you?
Hopefully dinner and a nap, but probably more writing.

The Year of the Knife
G.D. Penman
Published by: Meerkat Press
Publication date: November 28, 2017
Genres: Adult, Thriller, Urban Fantasy

Agent -Sully- Sullivan is one of the top cops in the Imperial Bureau of Investigation. A veteran witch of the British Empire who isn’t afraid to use her magical skills to crack a case. But Sully might need more than a good education and raw power to stop the string of grisly murders that have been springing up across the American Colonies. Every one of them marked by the same chilling calling card, a warning in the form of a legion of voices screaming out through the killers’ mouths: -It IS tHe YEAr oF the KNife.

Sully’s investigation will drag her away from the comforts of home in New Amsterdam, the beautiful but useless hyacinth macaw that used to be her boss, and the loving arms of her undead girlfriend, in a thrilling race against time, demonic forces and a shadowy conspiracy that will do anything to keep its hold on power and ensure that Sully takes their secrets to her grave, as soon as possible.

G.D. Penman’s imaginative The Year of the Knife is a fun, fast-paced urban fantasy mystery with an engaging set of characters, most notably Agent Sully of the Imperial Bureau of Investigation.

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Author Bio:
G D Penman writes Speculative Fiction. He lives in Scotland with his partner and children, some of whom are human. He is a firm believer in the axiom that any story is made better by dragons. His beard has won an award. If you have ever read a story with Kaiju and queer people, it was probably one of his. In those few precious moments that he isn’t parenting or writing he likes to watch cartoons, play video and tabletop games, read more books than are entirely feasible and continue his quest to eat the flesh of every living species.

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