The Black Hand, vol. 40

Announcement: ALL SHALL MOURN

I only have one announcement for this month – and if you’ve been keeping an eye on my Instagram account, you’ll already know what it is!

Friends, we have an outcome, and the third and final book in the None Shall Sleep Sequence has been announced: ALL SHALL MOURN will be released in digital and paperback in February 2025.

Here’s the back-cover blurb:

Simon Gutmunsson is on the loose.

Since the disastrous events of the College Killer case, the FBI is coming to terms with the fact that while catching one sociopath, they’ve released another. Chillingly manipulative, frighteningly intelligent, and wholly insane, Simon Gutmunsson is the worst of the worst. Now he’s free, and on the run with his twin sister Kristin, and nobody in the FBI is smart enough to keep up…

Travis Bell's last investigation for FBI Behavioral Science nearly killed him. Supported by family and his partner Emma Lewis, now Travis just needs to get back on his feet. But Emma has been recruited to help the FBI hunt the ultimate sociopath, Simon Gutmunsson, and there’s no way Travis is letting her go into this battle alone…

Emma Lewis has gained some perspective on life, and as her emotional walls come down, she realizes that only by working as a perfect team will she and Travis have any chance of beating the Gutmunsson twins at their own terrifying game. So in a journey that will take them from Moroccan souks to Mexican Day of the Dead celebrations, the stage is set for Simon and Kristin and Emma and Travis to meet up in an epic final showdown...

Aaaahhhhh!! I’m so excited!!

I’m releasing the book myself, which means you get to see it sooner than if it was traditionally published, and I’m so damn pumped to finally be sharing this book with you!

Chapters releasing now!

I’ll be releasing seven chapters from ALL SHALL MOURN in my newsletters from now until the book’s publication.

Chapters One and Two will be available to everyone, Chapters Three through Seven will only be available to readers of my paywalled newsletter Nailbiters.

Are you ready? I AM SO READY 😁
And you can get started right away…

Chapter One is now available to read here at this link.

Q&A about ALL SHALL MOURN

What happened? Did your publisher agree to publish the book?

Nope – LBYR decided not to publish, and we couldn’t find another publisher to take it. But every single day I get asked on social media about when this book is coming, and the book is ready to go, so I said the hell with it, I’m going to release it anyway.

Can I read it now?

You can read Chapter One now, today, right this minute! Click this link.

What about the other chapters?

I’m serializing the first seven chapters of ALL SHALL MOURN in my newsletters.

So the Chapter Two link will go live to everyone via this newsletter next month (September).

Chapters Three onward (from October to February) will go out once per month in my paywalled newsletter Nailbiters – those extra chapters will be exclusive to Nailbiters readers. If you’d like to sign up to Nailbiters, you totally can (even if it’s just to read all the chapters and then unsubscribe again, I really don’t mind).

But if you want to save your dollary-doos a little longer, the entire book will go out February 2025.

Can I get a digital/paperback copy of the book when it arrives?

Yes! The book will be available in both digital (ebook) and paperback (print) in Feb 2025.

What about hardcovers and audio?

I won’t be able to make hardcovers, I’m real sorry. Amazon does hardcover print-on-demand, but they don’t look very good. Ingram does hardcovers, but they’re also a bit average and cost significantly more. I figure that by October, both the first and second books will be available in the US in paperback (they’re already available in paperback in Aus/Oceania), so I’m going to skip the hardcover step and go straight to paperback for All Shall Mourn.

And also, at this point, I don’t have the budget for an audiobook. Audiobook production is hugely expensive if you do it independently – especially if, like me, you prefer to have real human voices and hire decent voice actors to narrate. Right now, it’s beyond my means.

Apologies for the limited formats (and biggest apologies to the hardcover completists) but doing this all myself makes expensive formats tougher. If the book sells well, and I get the budget for a new format, I’ll let you know.

Won’t it be a bit crummy if you’re not releasing through a publisher?

I don’t believe so? It’s the same book I’d be releasing with my publisher…and also this isn’t my first self-release rodeo. I’ve published four books myself (No Limits, and my three Circus Hearts series books) and I’ve gotten pretty good at making a great quality product. I go through the same processes – editorial, typeset, layout, proofing – as I do with a traditional publisher, except with freelance professionals, and I’m spending money on a fantastic cover.

I’m planning to make a high-standard book that’ll have the same size and look as the paperbacks you already buy from the store. I hope you like it!

What will the ALL SHALL MOURN cover look like?

My cover designer is hard at work creating something that matches the existing covers of Books 1&2, and I’ll be sharing the Book 3 cover in October. Hold onto your butts!

Will I be able to preorder the book before February 2025?

Yes again! When the cover goes live in October, there’ll be links available to preorder the book. You’ll also be able to add the book to your shelves on Goodreads.

I’m hoping to make some nice swag for preorder gifts, so stay tuned.

Will this be the final book in the series?

Yes – so far as I know (unless another publisher gets in touch and offers to pay me to write more!) I won’t rule anything out, but I’ve planned for this book to be the finale of the series.

I’m just so excited that I finally get to read the book!

Honestly, ME TOO 😁 I’m seriously stoked that I get to share it with you at last. Thank you all for your patience as we’ve followed this book (this whole series!) down its strange and narrow path to publication.

I’m nervous and excited and I really hope you love it 😊🖤

 Other Events: Book Week

Weirdly, there’s been other things happening apart from just this book reveal!

I’m currently at the tail end of Book Week activities – and holy crap, what a lot of activities there’ve been! This year I have been completely smashed with school visits and events, and I’ve loved every second of it. There’s nothing so cool as getting to meet the students who are reading your books!

If you ran into me during Book Week, I hope you got a chance to say hi, and I hope I wasn’t too exhausted from all the running around to have a proper conversation, lol.

What I’m reading

Absolutely nothing. I’ve been too damn busy.

The only problem with having such a busy Book Week is that I don’t get to read any books myself while I’m in the middle of it.

But my time will come, oh yes…and I have my eye on a bunch of great books that I’ll recommend to you once I’ve had a chance to catch my breath.

What I’m watching

I mean, we watched the Olympics? Although I only got the highlights as other people in my house were watching stuff (like ALL the swimming, and weightlifting, and track and field. Personally I would’ve liked to watch more gymnastics).

And I watched Twisters – I thought it was…fine. If you want to see something actually good (with apologies to Glen Powell, who seems like he has genuine charisma and obviously tried his best), I recommend you watch the original movie Twister with Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton.

THIS is the only thing I’ve been watching on repeat: Immortal Universe and AMC released the teaser trailer for The Vampire Lestat and I think I screamed a little when I saw it. Isn’t Sam Reid absolutely perfect? (I am preening in Australian here)

That’s it – sorry for a short one this month! I have more crime oddspots lined up for next month, but I figured you’d want to get straight into the “reading the first chapter of the new book” thing right away!

It’s been a genuine privilege to get ALL SHALL MOURN ready to share with you, and I cannot wait to hear what you think… Hit me up on Instagram or Threads if you have any comments about Chapter One, and keep your knives sharp for the next instalment in September.

And thank you, thank you, thank you! It’s been so amazing hearing from so many people how much they love the None Shall Sleep series and how much they’ve been hanging out for the finale. I hardly dared to believe we’d get to this point, where I get to send the conclusion of Emma and Travis and Simon and Kristin’s story out into the world – but here we are. You folks made this happen, so thank you.

I hope the book is everything you ever dreamed of 🖤

Have a great month, and see you in September for Chapter Two!

xxEllie