Stephen Embleton

  What a fantastic thing... for Soul Searching to be on the Arthur C. Clarke Award "long list" of eligible books – 105 titles read by the judges. 📖❤️🚀  Check them all out here.

This morning was a shot out of the blue... and I am most grateful for the longlisting of a Young Adult (YA)/New Adult fantasy story I am passionate about telling. Bones and Runes was begun in September 2016 as a short story idea that demanded be told in its entirety, as a novel, and as the first in a trilogy. I spent the next two years researching (and posting my research and interviews on my podcast, cltrSHIFT ) but paused at the end of 2018 with a third of the novel written but the majority plotted out. I also had such fun doing the fantasy world map and accompanying ink illustrations (whether they are ever used or not). Come 2020 – and lockdown from March – I then threw myself into it without any distractions – work was slow. It was the most fun I've had in writing, and writing a novel-length work (considering how long Soul Searching took me writing part time). Find the press release and full list here.