At the beginning of February 2014, Iād just finished a first draft of an as-yet-unannounced novel for Obverse but already knew it needed another run at it before I could call it finished. Since itās been something like two years since Stuart Douglas at Obverse first asked me to pitch him something, I thought Iād better get in touch and check he didnāt need to see it urgently. He didnāt - which was fortunate, as I was just about to put it to one side to write my story for Iris Wildthyme of Mars. When I mentioned this to Stuart, it must have set a few braincells firing: he asked if I had any desire to edit an Iris book of my own. Although I quite regularly beta-read other writersā work, Iāve never actually edited anybody else. The idea was appealing, not least because it would give me the chance to say I had editorial experience. You never know exactly what might lift you up above the crowd ā¦
We discussed terms, and I promised to come back to him with an idea as soon as I could.