Things are starting to move forward on Light Touch, I am assured, so I thought I’d talk a little about the book today.

It sits in quite an odd place in my heart. Diplomancer was my first book, put together as the conclusion of a university course, and as such I have very strong memories of it. I can recount almost every moment where I was sat in front of a computer screen, writing it down. I don’t have that with Light Touch.

This is not to say that I don’t have a fondness and love for it, because I do. I have improved in the craft with each subsequent novel, and I truly think therefore that Light Touch is better than Diplomancer, as Lore and Order is better than Light Touch, and SNIDE will be better than them all.

But the creating of Light Touch is a dark spot in my memory. Outside of it having been sparked from a sudden and intense love of the Thief series of videogames, I can’t recall much of the construction. What I do remember, however, is that there was a definite drive to not do what so much steampunk has a habit of doing – place the awesomeness of the technology above the story. There may indeed be a steampunk aesthetic, but it has to be tempered to serve the plot.

But it is, in my mind, steampunk. A steampunk heist story. With a cowboy and a thief and political intrigue, and maybe a tiny bit of magic, because I can’t leave that behind now can I? Hopefully it won’t be too long now before you can have a look!