Monday is a big day. The third Dave Travise novel, Promise Me, is released.
Since I first published Freefall, the covers have been updated, to reflect the fact that this is now a series.
Here are the original covers, including the one I never used for Promise Me.
And here are the new covers.
It’s funny how things turn out, when I first published Freefall, way back in 2013, I had no idea that it would form part of a series. I didn’t even think that I would write another book. The main character, Dave Travise was a trader with a past, coming to terms with his life and lost love while hauling cargo across the galaxy. I made him an enigmatic loner and hinted at why that might be.
Then people started asking me questions, “What does this part mean?” or “why did Dave do that?”
I realised that I needed to tell them more about Dave and why he was like he was. And thanks to the voices in my head, I had plenty of ideas. There were two ways I could go, I could tell everyone what he had done before the events of Freefall, to show what had led Dave to be where he was at the start of that story, or after it, to tell everyone what happened next.
In the end, I decided to go back to Dave’s early life (when he wasn’t actually Dave). From there, I took his story up to a point before Freefall started. It was probably the right decision, as I was to find out as the novel developed.
In Myra, we found out that Dave was a more complicated man than you might have realised. You came to understand his loneliness and cynicism, saw that he and Myra had had something special. Myra became the start of the series that I was never going to write.
Freefall, my first novel, was now part two of a series.
While I was writing about Dave’s past, I saw how his future might be. I saw how the things I was describing would influence his later actions.
Then other projects got in the way and I left Dave in limbo for a while. But I didn’t completely forget the universe he inhabited. Instead of more of his adventures, I wrote a spin-off, Survive, staring one of the characters mentioned in Freefall.
As had happened once already, a reader of both Freefall and Myra wanted to know what else had happened to Dave, before or since. Once again, I wondered. Could I fit another book in between the two or should I go for a story starting where Freefall ended?
In the end, I wrote Promise Me, which directly follows the events in Freefall. I intended it to wrap up Dave’s story, tying all the loose ends together, making sense of his life and leaving him in peace.
My mind had other ideas. Promise Me has an end, but it’s not the end of Dave’s story. As always seems to happen, there are still things he wants to do. And, as I said a couple of weeks ago, the period between Myra and Freefall has given me the chance to tell more of his story.
There will definitely be at least one more instalment in Dave’s story. When will it see the light of day? I couldn’t possibly tell you.
You can get the stories here,
Myra is currently on sale at 99p ($0.99).
Officially, Finn Douglas died on active duty. The truth is more complicated.
When a Federation Navy patrol is ambushed, on the edge of explored space, Finn is the only survivor. Instead of death, he’s given the chance of a new life. All he has to do is keep his mouth shut.
Fitted with a second-hand identity chip, Finn Douglas becomes Dave Travise.
His new boss is Rixon, a trader with flexible morals, living on both sides of the law. Dave soon finds that his new life isn’t easy. Rixon has plenty of rivals, all looking for a chance to settle old scores.
As his life lurches from one crisis to another, Dave only has his wits and his new shipmates to keep him safe. If they can be trusted.
If that wasn’t enough, there’s Myra, the engineer on his new home. She could be available, except that she’s the real Dave Travise’s old flame.
Whatever name he uses, Dave’s going to need all the luck in the galaxy to get out of this in one piece.
Can you ever forget, when everything makes you remember?
Dave Travise is a man with a past. And the way things are going; he might not have much of a future.
All he really wants to do is forget, but he’s reminded about what he has lost at every turn. His life is in a rut, until the day the person he was expecting to see isn’t there, because she’s dead.
He finds out that she had a secret. He’s warned to keep his nose out.
Does he listen? Or could this be the adventure he’s been looking for?
As he gets more involved, his world turns upside down. Events take control of his life, and before he knows how he’s at the centre of a Galaxy-wide conspiracy.
Dave is pursued by those in power, desperate to keep what he knows a secret.
The biggest secret of all time.
Available from Monday
Break one promise to keep another, can there be a way to please everyone?
Dave Travise has promises to keep, a galaxy to search and no time to lose. The trouble is, most of the promises that he’s made contradict each other.
Why is there always more than one problem to solve at the same time? The authorities are on his trail and his girlfriend’s family are missing. If that wasn’t enough, he’s expected to mete out revenge on a man he hasn’t seen for fifteen years.
Pulled in different directions by the demands placed on him, friends become enemies and new allies appear. Once Dave realises that the only way to appease everyone is by doing what feels right, he may be surprised at what his efforts reveal.
In the end, there’s more than one way to keep a promise.
“a rollicking adventure ride filled with intrigue, murder, and quite a bit of mystery.”
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I hope everyone who reads this is coping and that your families are OK, please stay inside and stay safe.
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