Looking back at 2019, I think things were reasonably under control when I published the paperback of the third Hive Mind book, Hurricane, back in February.
After that, the second book in the Scavenger Exodus series, Scavenger Blood was published in June as an ebook, with the paperback following in August. That was the point when a family bereavement followed by illness made me go well behind schedule on writing my fourth Hive Mind book, Borderline. The situation wasn’t helped by the book insisting on being an extra long story.
My deepest apologies to people who were asking about release dates for Borderline. I couldn’t give a firm answer, because I didn’t know if the book would be out before Christmas until the very last minute. The problem with a Christmas release is that some sales outlets have the equivalent of a last posting date for Christmas and it’s quite early in the month. Releasing after that date can mean a book gets caught in a shut down period and doesn’t appear on the sales outlet until January.
Borderline made it out in time though! I’d like to thank everyone who bought it themselves or requested it as a Christmas present. I hope you enjoyed joining Amber and her team to solve another mystery in the Hive. An especial thank you to everyone who found time in the busy Christmas period to send me encouraging comments or write reviews. Reader support is vitally important for authors, making it possible for us to keep writing and publishing books. I deeply appreciate yours.
My plans for 2020 are a little hazy. I’ll be working in the Portal Future for the next few months, and hopefully getting something completed and published in the summer. I can’t predict exactly what I’ll be publishing, because I’ve got several projects in varying stages of being written, and it all depends which the creative side of my brain decides to work on next. The creative side of my brain has a bad habit of getting distracted by new ideas and running off shouting “Oooo shiny!”
At some point I will swap across to writing Hive Mind 5 with the aim of getting that out in December 2020, though there’ll be the usual risk of it slipping into January 2021.
Happy 2020 to you all!
Janet Edwards
Happy 2020! I’ve a tradition of posting a short story on my website to celebrate the New Year. This time the story is called The End, and the New Beginning. It’s set in the Portal Future after the events told in the Earth Girl trilogy and features Jarra. This story is packed with spoilers for the Earth Girl trilogy, so please only read it if you’ve read Earth Flight.
Since this short story is turning out to be a long story, I’ve only posted the first part, and the rest will be gradually appearing over the next few weeks.
You can read the first part of The end, and the New Beginning here.
There are currently two active wikis – one covering the Portal Future and one the Hive Future -, as well as three fascinating TV Tropes pages about my books. I’ve just reorganized the Fun Extras section of this website, to add a Fandom Wikis, TV Tropes, and Forums page giving more information and links to them.
It’s worth noting that both the wikis have brand new forums. Please don’t stop posting comments on my website. I love getting feedback on the books, I need the encouragement of knowing readers are enjoying them, and am happy to answer questions.
I know that a few people would have liked to have very detailed discussions about events in Borderline though. The wiki forums could be the answer for the sort of discussion that would get too spoiler-packed for other visitors to my website.
It’s getting close to the end of 2019, and I’m seeing a lot of people doing posts about what they’ve done in the last ten years. For me, it’s sixteen publications. That’s ten full length books, a short story collection, four novellas, and a novelette.
In the Hive Future:-
In the Portal Future:-
In the Game Future:-
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#SFWAPRO
Being a telepath means your greatest strength can also be your greatest weakness.
Eighteen-year-old Amber is the youngest of the five telepaths who protect the hundred million citizens of one of the great hive cities of twenty-sixth century Earth. Her job is hunting down criminals before they commit their crimes, but this time she must face multiple challenges.
While preparing to celebrate the New Year festival of family, Amber’s team have to deal with a case where the stakes grow increasingly personal. The help of Amber’s borderline telepath counsellor, Buzz, becomes crucial.
Borderline is the fourth book in the Hive Mind series. Further books are planned to follow.
Cover art (C) Janet Edwards 2019, Cover Design by The Cover Collection.
#SFWAPRO
If you haven’t tried the Scavenger Exodus series yet then you can read sample chapters of Scavenger Alliance here.
2408. Humanity has travelled to the stars through interstellar portals, but the rebels and criminals were left behind on a ruined Earth. Eighteen-year-old Blaze is one of the last seven hundred people scavenging a living in an increasingly lethal New York infested by alien predators. Forced to step into the spotlight to help her father defeat a leadership challenge by her old enemy Cage, she’s now adjusting to being deputy leader of the uneasy alliance between the remnants of the Earth Resistance and the old criminal gangs.
As a child, Blaze escaped the firestorm when the London power grid exploded, and a similar firestorm will soon hit New York. The alliance must leave New York this spring or die, but they’re facing the twin threats of a fugitive Cage hiding somewhere in the area, and his old supporters causing trouble within the alliance. When a hunting party fails to return, the situation starts spiralling out of control, and the alliance’s off-worlder guests have a key part to play.
Scavenger Blood is the second book in the Scavenger Exodus series. This is set in the same future timeline as the Earth Girl trilogy, but takes place several centuries earlier, and features an ancestor of the trilogy’s main character, Jarra.
Full details here.
Cover art (C) Janet Edwards 2019, Cover Design by The Cover Collection.
Please sign up here if you’d like to get email updates when there’s a new release by Janet Edwards.
#SFWAPRO
2408. Humanity has travelled to the stars through interstellar portals, but the rebels and criminals were left behind on a ruined Earth. Eighteen-year-old Blaze is one of the last seven hundred people scavenging a living in an increasingly lethal New York infested by alien predators. Forced to step into the spotlight to help her father defeat a leadership challenge by her old enemy Cage, she’s now adjusting to being deputy leader of the uneasy alliance between the remnants of the Earth Resistance and the old criminal gangs.
As a child, Blaze escaped the firestorm when the London power grid exploded, and a similar firestorm will soon hit New York. The alliance must leave New York this spring or die, but they’re facing the twin threats of a fugitive Cage hiding somewhere in the area, and his old supporters causing trouble within the alliance. When a hunting party fails to return, the situation starts spiralling out of control, and the alliance’s off-worlder guests have a key part to play.
Scavenger Blood is the second book in the Scavenger Exodus series. This is set in the same future timeline as the Earth Girl trilogy, but takes place several centuries earlier, and features an ancestor of the trilogy’s main character, Jarra.
Cover art (C) Janet Edwards 2019, Cover Design by The Cover Collection.
Please sign up here if you’d like to get email updates when there’s a new release by Janet Edwards.
#SFWAPRO
Being a telepath means there is always a new challenge.
Eighteen-year-old Amber is the youngest of the five telepaths who protect the hundred million citizens of one of the great hive cities of twenty-sixth century Earth. Her job is hunting down criminals before they commit their crimes, but this time a simple case leads on to something far bigger.
This is a case where Amber’s team have to face the unknown and break all the rules they usually follow, while Amber has extra burdens she can’t share with anyone. She has a personal mystery to solve, and questions she 
wants answered, but curiosity is a dangerous trait in a telepath.
Hurricane is the third full-length book in the Hive Mind series. Further books are planned to follow.
Full details here.
Cover art (C) Janet Edwards 2018, Cover Design by The Cover Collection.
My New Year post is a few days late this year, but at least I managed to get the traditional New Year short story up on time. If you haven’t read Your Move, Drago yet, the
n it’s here.
The highlights for 2018 were the publication of another Earth Girl prequel novella, Earth and Air, and the third Hive Mind book, Hurricane, but there is also some exciting news for anyone who speaks Russian.
The year started with the publication of the paperback of
Defender in February.
Earth and Air was published in June as an ebook, with the paperback following in August. Earth and Air is the sequel to Earth and Fire, but significantly longer. You get fifty per cent more Jarra!
Earth and Air is the second in what is planned to be a set of three Earth Girl prequel novellas following Jarra’s adventures in the summer before the start of Earth Girl. I don’t yet have a planned release date for the third novella – called with staggering originality Earth and Water. I’m currently focusing my efforts on full-length books because those generally seem more popular, so Earth and Water will have to wait until I have a suitable gap in my schedule.
Hurricane was my Christmas ebook release, so there was the usual last minute rush to get it published before the Christmas holidays. I’ve been glad to hear that people are enjoying the latest adventure of my telepath and her team, so the effort was definitely worthwhile. The Hive Mind series is planned to be open-ended, and I have ideas for several future books.
And the exciting Russian news is that the Earth Girl trilogy is being published in Russian translation by AST. I knew this was going to happen last summer, but didn’t expect any books to be published until well into 2019. In fact, I discovered a few weeks ago that the Russians have moved much faster than I expected. My information is totally dependent on Google Translate, so Russian readers will be much better informed than me, but I believe Earth Girl has already been published in Russian while Earth Star is available for pre-order.
As always, I’d like to thank you all for reading my books, 
recommending them to your friends, sending me so many encouraging messages, and taking the time to do reviews and ratings. Your support is vital and greatly appreciated.
And finally, last January, I asked my newsletter list for volunteer beta readers. I had such a wonderful response that I’ve only been able to ask a small percentage of people to beta read so far, but I’d like to thank everyone who volunteered.
Happy 2019!
Janet Edwards
