Dave Jeffery: Author

Frustration is a soul-destroying beast. More often than not it sort of creeps up on me, but lately it has taken to landing in my lap and shouting 'boo!' with all the subtlety of a Damien Hurst sculpture.

Fete of Fate appears to be hexed. I know this sounds slightly paranoid but let me explain. Then you can tell me I'm definately being paranoid! When I first started the book, Fearsome Feast was out and totally unknown (as opposed to being mostly unknown; as it is now). I began writing Fete in the Winter of 2006, and was halfway through when two events occurred. In March, 2007, my father died within six weeks of being told he had cancer. My wife's step dad died four weeks after that in uncannily similar circumstances. I spent the June and July of 2007 pouring my anger and disillusionment into the tale that became Finding Jericho which was accepted for publication by Chipmunka Publishing Ltd in September of the same year. My focus shifted for a while; and what was once unclear became a very ugly vista. Depression followed and by December I had a date with anti-depressants. 

So I was drifting along and Beatrice and The Newshounds were in limbo. I handed in the final MS for Finding Jericho in January 2008 and then picked up where I left off; ploughing into Fete of Fate in an attempt to adorn my daemons with best jackets.

The intention was to publish Fete as one volume, yet publishing through Lulu meant that it would be exhorbitant to the loyal fan-base that Feast was beginning to amass on the Internet. So I decided to publish it in two volumes; to keep the cost down. I set a publishing date for April 2008 but then there were more delays as poorly edited copies were allowed into the marketplace and I had to halt the process of book 2 as I re-edited book 1.

With Book One now ready to go,  work began on the final edit of Book Two and I suggested that it would be ready for early summer. To sate the desire of those loyal to all things Beatrice, I released Book One but fans wanted to wait for both books to be available.

With Book Two nearly ready,  and disillusioned with Lulu, I decided to approach Chipmunka to see if they would consider publishing the third Beatrice tale: Cryptic Crypt, next year. To my great delight they said yes - but they also wanted Fearsome Feast and Fete of Fate Books One and Two on their roster!

So ... Fearsome Feast was to be re-edited, re-vamped and revised. More character depth and hints to future stories added. The ending altered. Then Fete of fate Book One was to be re-vamped; as well as Book Two. More delays saw the Beatrice waggon hit rocks and lose a wheel throughout the summer and into the autumn, where things finally began to work out. But not to everyone's satisfaction.

Amazon still hasn't uploaded the new book covers onto their site. And I suspect the credit crunch will disuade all but the staunch from purchasing Fete of Fate Books One and Two. Christmas is coming and belts are tight - this is now the way of the world. Who could have predicted it? Fate, I guess.

So what is the point of all this, you may well ask? I guess I needed space to see what's gone on over the past eighteen months or so, try and get a handle on it all. Life has been a storm for a while and Fete of fate has been a constant. Now it's out there, I'm hoping I have exorcised the daemons that I've harbored for so long and the waters towards which I sail are at least calmer for a while.

My best to you all, dear readers.

Dave