Today we are excited to reveal the cover for our own Patrick Samphire’s third book in his Mennik Thorn series, Strange Cargo! Here’s Patrick with a look back at how this series came to be.
Mennik Thorn and the Creation of a Story
Mennik Thorn came into my life through the backdoor, as you might expect of a second-rate mage with a habit of pissing people off. In the first incarnation of the first Mennik Thorn book, Shadow of a Dead God, he wasn’t even there, and neither was the chaotic city of Agatos, its competing high mages, and its strange magic system.
The first incarnation of the book was in fact set in 1920s England and was a mash-up of H. P. Lovecraft, Arthur Conan Doyle’s Challenger, and P. G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster. It had its good points, but overall, it didn’t work. I still liked the core story, though, so I rewrote it in a fantasy world, filled with battles, politics, and all the rest. This time, I didn’t have to get to the end to know it still wasn’t the right story. However, one very minor character did emerge in that attempt: a second-rate mage in far over his head and entirely unsuited for saving the world.
Mennik Thorn had shouldered his way in and was now demanding the entire story.
Again, the story moved, this time to a pseudo-Mediterranean, pseudo-eighteenth-century setting, and Mennik’s story took off. This time, I knew I had it right.
Quite early on, I decided I wanted to publish this book and its sequels myself. I had previously had a couple of middle grade books published by one of the “big 5” publishers, and I hadn’t been happy with the experience, nor with the lack of control over how the books were presented, marketed, and sold. But publishing your own work comes with a whole series of challenges, not least that no one knows who you are, and they have no reason to trust your book will be worth reading.
It’s entirely possible my books would have remained unnoticed and unread if it hadn’t been for the book bloggers and review sites willing to take a chance on reading an unknown author, not least Fantasy-Faction. When I entered Shadow of a Dead God in Mark Lawrence’s Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off contest (SPFBO), Fantasy-Faction were kind enough to nominate Shadow as their finalist, and that was where the book took off.
The sequel, Nectar for the God, was published in 2021, and now the third book, Strange Cargo, is due out on July 29, 2022. And, yes, Nik is still in over his head, still pissing people off, and still trying to do the right thing in his own way.
This time, he’ll be the one bringing a mage’s rod to a gunfight…with dangerously unpredictably results.
Summary
What do a smuggling gang, a curse that won’t go away, and a frequently lost dog have to do with each other?
Answer: They’re all here to disrupt Mennik Thorn’s hard-earned peace and quiet.
As the sole freelance mage in the city of Agatos, Mennik is used to some odd clients and awful jobs. But this time, one of his clients isn’t giving him a choice. Mennik might have forgotten about the smugglers whose operations he disrupted, but they haven’t forgotten about him. Now he is faced with a simple choice: help them smuggle in an unknown, dangerous cargo or flee the city he loves forever.
Time is running out for Mennik to find an answer, and things are about to get completely out of control.
Cover Reveal
With Strange Cargo out so soon, it’s time to reveal the cover:
We would like to thank Patrick again for letting us do the reveal for this awesome cover! I love the action in this scene with our hero apparently about to take on two nefarious looking baddies! That coupled with the shadowy silhouettes of tall ships and seagulls in the background, give the whole scene the air of a pirate story. You can almost smell the salt breeze and hear the birds crying. We don’t know if the dashing mage and his glowing wand will come out on top, but given that confident look, he’s going to give it his all! Kudos to Ömer Burak Öna on this amazing cover!
You can pre-order Strange Cargo here and check out Patrick’s website for more information on this exciting series! You can also follow him on Twitter and Facebook!
Geoff Matthews
Julia Kitvaria Sarene