Okay, so I’ve just submitted A Darkening of Fortune to Harper Voyager Books for consideration. Boom! Let’s see what happens…
Category Archives: Novel
A Darkening of Fortune
A Darkening of Fortune is the first major novel by Wayne Smallman, author of psychological thriller Lucidity and post-apocalyptic thriller Earth Day.
Justice with extreme prejudice.
“A riot-torn London struggles under a rising tide of racially motivated violence that gradually sweeps up through Birmingham to the great northern cities of Leeds and finally Manchester.
Detective Constable Pooja Chopra — a feisty and gifted second generation British-born Indian — and Detective Sergeant Matthew Bray — a motivated, brash and cocky local lad with a chequered past — of the Criminal Investigation Department in Southwark in London, soon realise the violence might not be everything it appears to be.
Joe — Yusef Iqbal, of Arab-Jewish extraction, and a former competitive martial arts combatant — is on the verge of sealing a lucrative government defence contract that could change his life and the life of his girlfriend, Sarah, forever. But when his presentation to the military is overrun by rioters, Joe inadvertently finds himself in possession of an advanced military prototype, and the temptation to try it out is unimaginable.
Joe is no super hero, and he quickly realises he’s definitely not Ironman, Superman or Batman, when things don’t quite work out the way they do in the movies. As his exploits become more elaborate, Joe becomes the target of a determined Colonel Rooney — head of the prototype research program — who doggedly pursues him and the prototype across the fiery cityscape of a London deep in the grip of turmoil.
Are these riots really an outpouring of a disaffected, racially divided nation on the brink of socioeconomic collapse? Or is there something more sinister and deadly lurking behind the scenes?
In a frantic quest to make good of this one truly unique opportunity, spurred on by memories of his dead father — a vocal campaigner for peace in the Middle East — Joe forges on. He is determined to bring an end to the unrest, rising to a climactic conclusion in his native Manchester, amidst a backdrop of raging street battles and, in doing so, resurrects dark demons from his youth.
But what price must Joe and the nation pay for victory, justice and peace?”
A Darkening of Fortune is available NOW on Amazon
A Darkening of Fortune is available to buy right now for Amazon Kindle and Apple’s iBookstore.
There may be trouble ahead
In the coming months, I’ll be publishing A Darkening of Fortune, and this article by Lee Jasper provides an interesting setting of stage to the troubling themes we can expect, not just within my novel, or confined to London.
Project Status — A Darkening of Fortune
So far, I’ve been working on A Darkening of Fortune (Wraith being its former and provisional name) almost the whole of 2012, and it has been the most difficult novel to date.
As some may remember, I’ve already written a large novel, which came very easily. However, that really isn’t the same here.
Presently, I have a written plan of how the end of the novel must be re-written, and it’s a substantial task.
I’m hoping to have a final draft ready for my editor by the end of the week. But I won’t allow myself to be rushed with this, not with so much depending on this first novel.
Project Status — Remembrance
Remembrance is a mix of horror fantasy, interwoven with the tenuous threads of science fiction, and it has progressed to an advanced developmental stage. It’s a novel I’m actually quite excited about.
“Worse things lurk in darkness and shadows than the evil of men.”