J. C. Duncan

Well, we'll see. If there isn't an 'official' event like a demonstration or re-enactment, there are a narrow range of times/places I can take a sharp (not fencing/sparring) sword without risking legal trouble.

But I do want to let you get your hands on it.

What is the world coming to!

Also, I could bring a show and tell item...

I'm very late to this, but I am attending world fantasycon, and I am interested in observing? maybe dipping my toes?

I was quite impacted by you disarming me in Glasgow like I was a child, not twice your size.

a fireworks display with the words happy new year written on the bottom ALT: a fireworks display with the words happy new year written on the bottom

I've had Viking dinners with a lot of my favorite histfic authors, been to Worldcon with a lot of my fantasy writer friends, had dozens of lovely emails from excited readers, and just really had a huge amount of joy from the craft.

I wouldn't stop for anything. Let's go 2025.

So 2024? Mixed year personally, pretty superb as an author.

No sane person becomes an author to get rich, and riches are the only thing authoring hasn't brought me in 2024.

I've had the joy of writing what I love, made amazing friends, had wonderful reviews, and paid some bills

And early reviews are biased towards fans, so that rating will slip a bit with time.

What it does do is help convince me to keep going, planning the next series. Imposter syndrome can be combated with such things.

Maybe one day I'll even get to make a living out of this.

On goodreads 'The Last Viking' series averages 4.56, which as far as I can tell, is just about the highest for any historical fiction series out there. Of them all. Ever.

How do I deal with the cascade of wealth such critical success brings?

HA! that Isn't how writing works.😂

Either on Goodreads or Amazon, the reviews have been superb. I get so much joy out of reading the written ones, and just out of the overall reception.

It's really a great platform to continue doing this stupid thing that I love.

The old series trundles along nicely, and should get a boost early in 2025 now that I have actually managed to finish it (sorry everyone!).

But the new series has massively increased my readership, as well as being very well received.

From an artistic standpoint, I am thrilled.

So how did 2024 compare to 2023? Ehhh, good and bad.

Income wise, static. I brought in ~£25k last year and the same again this year. But, due to the much smaller royalties of trad, my sales were massively up. In 2024 around 30 thousand copies of my books were sold worldwide.

My self-pub series got only a novella, Steel in the Morning, which had arguably the best name and definately the best cover of the series so far, both slightly wasted on a novella.

Oh well! It's so pretty though.

I was, however, finishing the final book, which is out Feb 15th.

So, year in writing? in 2024 I published 2 books (target was 3).

Raven Lord and Emperor's axe, both entires in my trad pub series 'The last Viking', about the life of Harald Hardrada.

This series has been my focus for much of the last year, and I've been very happy with it.

I am now the CEO of a startup tabletop gaming company that makes Modular hex terrain for RPG, wargaming etc.

It's a topic for another time.

Regardless, I was no longer trying to become a full time author.

instagram.com/lorescapeter...

Well, it was an interesting journey, but it didn't work out for two reasons. Firstly, the sales simply weren't there. They stopped going up and flatlined.

Secondly, I founded a new company with some old colleagues and friends, and split my time with that.

x.com/JCDuncanauth...

Some of you may have come across my #oneyeartopro threads in late 2023 and early 2024. My big plan when I lost my job was that i was going to write full time.

That thread is below. The deadline was today, the end of 2024.

x.com/JCDuncanauth...

In the last 18 months I lost my job, my marriage, one of my pets, some of my health, and my financial security.

Pretty much the only thing that went well was my writing career. So apologies, but I'm now going to produce my own trumpet and toot it merrily. 2024 in review. 1/x

The thing I most like about these couple of days is that you can legitimately look at even basic chores and think: 'Nah, fuck it, I'll do that next year.'

Laundry? Next year.
Hoovering? Next year.
Empty the dishwasher? Next year.

It's glorious.

I have zero excitement for yet another re-boot of Superman on the big screen.

But the poster is pretty dope.

a close up of a cat with big eyes ALT: a close up of a cat with big eyes

Awesome!

And..... did you like it?

Bonus moment was me, very confused and surprised to have been stopped by someone who recognised me, pointing at the rest of the group and saying 'Did you spot who I was with?' and Jon staring straight at Matthew Harffy and saying 'no, fraid I don't know them.'

😂

Annual Vaguely Vikings authors dinner yesterday in london. Highlights were @matthewharffy.bsky.social's little face when he got biscuits with his book cover on, and me getting recognised and stopped in the street by The Failing Writers podcaster Jon Rand.

First time anyone ever did that!

I think that was definately true in the 19th century, lots of unifications there, and maybe true until somewhere in the last century too. But my impression is that countries are splitting up more than they are joining now, although that is biased by the post Cold-war soviet mess.

a south park character says nuh uh in a cartoon ALT: a south park character says nuh uh in a cartoon

Because genuinely, that is far more realistic than some pre-modern tech or even future tech planet with a unified government. We can't even make a solid case to Scotland to remain in our union (I sympathise) while we are neighbours, but this three eyed alien speaks for his entire planet?

I just want sci-fi fiction occasionally, where the visiting spacecraft tries to contact the ruling power, and there are 40 days of arguing on the surface about who that is, how to build the delegation, and then a war breaks out to gain position as the ones who can trade with the space people.

And don't get me started with the 'every planet has a single biome' thing. The forest moon of Endor, really?

So, its forest at the poles and the equator? Every planet shown is always just green, or just desert, or just Ice. Ice or desert are beleiveable, but all green? It ain't how climate works.

I just came across something today, again, that has always bothered me with sci-fi fiction.

Planets always have a unified government. Why? for frack's sake we have 200 countries here on earth. What makes anyone beleive a unified planetary government is anything other than a unicorn?

That is a typical result of vanity presses, unfortunately. They charge you for publishing and then cut you off. Zero effort into making the book a success, because why would they. They have already been paid.

I hate it so much.

Because the sagas recount lots of (faintly ridiculous) events from Harald's time in the empire, but all in the format of a drunk man telling stories in a pub, with no order or structure or dates of any kind.

So, you need a secondary source to confirm and cross-reference it to make sense.