The Whale Mail Kickstarter is now funded so it’s definitely happening.
I’ve finished recording the audio and am now doing the illustrations. There will be a map and six illustrations in the book as well as chapter headings. You can see some of these on the Kickstarter page. The ebook and print versions will all contain these illustrations. As part of the Kickstarter, you will receive the separate files.
Here is a snippet from the second chapter:
If Perrin had hoped, in a secret, cowardly part of his mind, that the fight had stopped in the time that had passed between when the dockworker Bix had left the scene, walked through the streets and reported the goings on to the Bureau, he was sadly disappointed.
Yells and shouts and the sound of breaking glass echoed through the narrow street.
In the time since Bix had left, the disturbance had spread to the alley at the side of the inn, and had grown into an all-out brawl between people in various states of drunkenness.
In the chaos, it was very hard to see who was fighting whom or where to start investigating.
A single guard was standing on the corner of the alley, hopelessly outnumbered and not sure what to do.
Inspector Carbin went to speak to him.
“What’s going on here?”
He gave her a startled look. “Uhm… madam?”
“Urgh.” Inspector Carbin yanked off the pink hat and changed from the mole-faced witch into herself.
The guard’s face cleared. “Oh, it’s you.”
“Yes, it’s me, and I’ve brought a team. What’s going on here?”
“I’m holding this position while my colleague is drumming up reinforcements.”
“What’s up with these louts?”
“My partner and I were walking past when we noticed unrest in the inn. We tried to stop them fighting, but we might as well have shouted at the wind to stop blowing.”
Inspector Carbin asked, “Did you spot anything that indicates the use of magic?”
“We did, for a bit, but we couldn’t get close enough to see where it was coming from. Honestly, it was far too crowded in that place.”
“Did you establish who were fighting?”
“There are some strangers in town,” he began to say, but at that moment a great shouting match broke out and the rest of his words were drowned out by the noise.
The mood in the crowd had changed.
Someone shouted, but it was not a burst of anger. It was a cry of fear.
People retreated. Several young men ran away, one covering his head with a jacket.
More and more people started running away. First those who had been close to the fight, and then others followed.
“Come on,” Inspector Carbin said. She had put her pink hat back on and had changed back into a witch.
“What’s happening?” Verbena asked Perrin.
“I don’t know. Come on, let’s stay together.”
