Daydream Believer

I’ve always been a daydreamer. Not in a spaced-out, passive sort of way, but in the restless, idea-hopping, scribble-notes-on-receipts way. The kind where one stray thought like “what if I had to explain a smartphone to someone from the 1800s?” can send me spiralling down an entire afternoon of imagined conversations, cultural confusion, and existential debate.

It’s not a bug. It’s a feature.

Somewhere in the middle of one of those daydreams in early 2020, as the country descended into its first COVID-19 lockdown, a story started to form. Just the shape of it at first. Nothing fully-formed. But I had a boy who washed up on a beach with no memory. I had questions about which versions of history get written down. And I had a name: Reality Quake.

What helped bring the story to life was, oddly enough, a 24-hour writing challenge. I’d done a series of livestreamed events to raise money for charity during the pandemic — mostly playing video games with friends — but this time I wanted to write. I set a goal of 24,000 words in 24 hours and ended up with over 30,000. Was it good? No. Was it structured? Not especially. Was it the tired ramblings of someone who'd gone ever-so-slightly exhaustion-mad? Without a doubt.

But nestled in that chaotic burst of storytelling were the seeds of what would eventually become my next novel.

That was over five years ago.

Since then, the book has grown through multiple drafts and total rewrites, but the heart of it has stayed the same — and so have the characters. Joshua, Jayce, Ellie, and David have been with me since the start, though their dialogue is sharper and their edges a little more lived-in. Some incredible awful jokes survived too, because I can never resist a terrible pun. And honestly? Neither can my characters.

One of the strangest joys of writing this book was realising, quite late in the process, that the story didn’t end on the last page. Not really. There were threads left hanging — deliberately or not — and deeper questions still to ask. The world I’d built wanted more room. So I gave it space.

Which brings me to the part I’ve never said publicly before:

Reality Quake is not the name of my next novel. It's the name of a series of novels, the first of which I'm thrilled to say will be published in February 2026.

There’s so much more to share about the world, the characters, and the ideas that shaped it, but for now I just wanted to give you a glimpse of where it all began. With a stray thought, a charity livestream, and a handful of puzzle pieces that refused to stay separate.

If you’ve made it this far: thank you. This story has been quietly unfolding behind the scenes for years, and it means the world to start bringing you into it.

Here's to February!