The Return of Matthew Quinton

Exciting news for readers of my historical fiction series ‘The Journals of Matthew Quinton’ – three years after the publication of the last two titles, our hero will be returning for more swashbuckling adventures on the high seas during the reign of King Charles II!

This announcement is very much a consequence of the recent lockdown. Like many people, I had plenty of time to do some serious thinking, so I focused long and hard on what I wanted to write next after the completion of the three ‘Jack Stannard’ books. I put together a number of proposals for pitching to my publisher, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised that what I wanted to do most of all in the immediate future was to bring the Quinton series to a proper conclusion. Not only did I feel I owed it to my readers, but there was also a strong element of personal fulfilment – in a nutshell, I’ve lived with these characters for so long that I really want to complete their stories. I’m also not getting any younger (although obviously, I’m still far too young to be, say, a US presidential candidate) and now only want to write things I really enjoy and want to write, rather than write things which others think I should write. While I’m very enthusiastic about the other proposals I produced during lockdown, writing a new Quinton book ticks all the boxes in terms of what I really want to do next.

Before you all start clamouring for a publication date so you can pre-order copies in their thousands, I should provide a couple of quick caveats. For various personal reasons, I decided I didn’t want to be tied down to a contractual deadline for the next few months. Moreover, my publisher hasn’t yet agreed to take any new Quinton titles (of course, a flood of messages from readers may help to persuade them!), but if necessary I’ll self-publish the new books. This is a course which several friends and acquaintances have taken with considerable success, and has the added advantage that it would enable the titles to come out in hard copy as well as in e-book form.

So what’s the first of the new books about, you ask? Well, I’ve already flagged that on this site in the past, but the next Quinton adventure is set in 1668 and takes him to the Caribbean, where he encounters the famous buccaneer Henry Morgan. But it’s going to be very far from a ‘shiver me timbers’ pirate adventure, as Matthew is dragged into Morgan’s intrigues while attempting to fulfil a seemingly impossible mission on behalf of a member of the royal family. If all goes to plan, it’ll be an action-packed tale with some unexpected twists along the way. And yes, I have actually started to write it, and yes, it does have a title…but you’re going to have to wait for further ‘teasers’ on this site!

***

Next week I’ll be marking the publication of Armada’s Wake, the third book in my ‘Jack Stannard of the Navy Royal’ trilogy. This will be released by Canelo on Monday 10 August, so next week will be party time!