Before we get to the news, I did something a bit special this last weekend; I did my first ever in-person book event. But before we get to that, let's get down to business, because the world is ending and I have a new book out.

Inertia is out now

The second episode of Season Six of The Sunset Chronicles, Inertia, is out now in ebook and paperback.

The sky has stopped burning, but the nightmare is only beginning.

Amidst the wreckage, Wyn drags herself back to reality, with the survivors of her crew beside her and the creatures from the ice... somewhere. She has crossed the solar system to come home, and all she wants now is to warn the people about what her ship brought back.

In a nearby Texan town, Jules and Sofia can see what climbed out of the Minos. Now they have a wounded woman to carry, a dusty house to hide in, and a night to survive before anything, or anyone, comes looking.

In the Northern English wilds, Roman has a child who could unmake armies and no idea where to take her. With Sunset silent and the world coming apart, the only plan he has left is to keep walking and hope the road is kind.

In an empty Sunset operations centre, Oban finds the lights on and nobody home. The empire that held him has fallen quiet, and all he wants is to find out whether the glimmer of hope in his chest is a fool’s.

In Atlanta, Yan walks out of the chaos she helped to cause, carrying a secret and a guilt that grows with every mile.

The fire is dying down. The real fight for survival has only just begun.

So, yeah, I did a thing….

This weekend just gone, I packed up my car full of books, banners, bookmarks, and a shiny new tablecloth, and did my first ever in-person event, at Bristolcon, the sci-fi convention.

Over the last decade of publishing, I'd never really considered doing in-person events. At some point when I'm not so full of cold (obtained at said event) I'll try and elaborate a little bit about why that changed over on the blog (which I promise I will get back to, eventually), but this was a kind of proof of concept for a whole new approach to publishing for me, and what a brilliant weekend it turned out to be. I met loads of people, sold more books than I really could have dreamed of, did my first ever panel (on Meliorism, which it turns out isn't a Linkin Park album), and generally reaffirmed my love of being an author, on my own terms.

If you're reading this now because you were one of the people who took the time to listen to me rabbiting on, thank you. It meant the world to me, and I hope you're enjoying your books. But if you're thinking 'well, that's great Paul, maybe if you'd have told us about that in advance we might have gone, too', well, sorry, I was a bit nervous about it, to be honest.

But I have some good news. I'm going on tour!

So, if you fancy picking up a signed paperback, having a chat about vampires, discussing the terrible telepaths at the end of Babylon 5, or just seeing what an author looks like in the wild, come and find me at these lovely places:

• Sunday 15 Nov, Liverpool Book Festival, BoxPark

• Sunday 22 Nov, Oxford Indie Book Fair, Oxford Examination Schools

• Saturday 28 Nov, Bristol Alternative Market, Kingsdown Sports Centre

• Sunday 13 Dec, Weston Alternative Market, Optima Stadium, Weston-Super-Mare

Everything you'll find is human-made, from the stories (by me) to the covers (also by me). Print copies of the Sunset Chronicles, Darkness Rises, Blood on the Motorway, and more will be on the table, and I’ll be the one nervously over-explaining my own books to anyone foolish enough to glance in my direction for more than a few seconds.

You can get full details at hollowstone.press/events. I've already started to line up some events for next year, too, so there's plenty of Hollow Stone to go around.

And that's about all there is for this week. Hope you're enjoying season six, and I hope to see some of you over the next few months

Until then, happy reading.

Paul, Cirencester.