The Heaviness of Genie Magee

The Repercussions of Tomas D

Another Place To Die Endtime Chronicles

Marikka

J&K 4Ever lovers on the run

Girl with Cat (Blue)

November: Welcome - Happy You Found Me My fiction reading recently includes a Japanese mystery novel Strange Pictures by UKETSU, book one of a series of art based murder stories. I'm also re-reading Kolymsky Heights by Lionel Davidson - a remarkable spy thriller set in remote Russia. Well worth your trouble. * It has been stuck in movie development hell since 2019.

In the real world you may have noticed Putin has declared he's getting ready to invade Europe (possibly with Musk's assistance) in addition to murdering everyone in Ukraine. The UK Government has instructed us all to stockpile water and beans to last three days (which is about as long as they think our underfunded UK Defences will last). After that we're on our own I guess.

I know it seems like everything is just about politics and elections right now, but perhaps we should focus on how we are going to survive AI? Almost every day we hear about people being replaced by AI, we need to be pressing our politicians to tax AI - make it financially painful for companies to dispense with humans and think about some kind of permanent universal income paid to ex-workers of META, Alphabet, or Anthropic or all our banks and legal companies - yes lawyers are vulnerable too. This will be become very urgent in 2027 I think.

That said, I spent October getting to know AI a little. Bit late to the party but as you know already resistance is futile. However, I shall not be using AI to write my fiction. One: the Society of Authors forbids it, as do most UK publishers and Amazon itself. Two: the whole point of being a writer is to write the text. It’s your job to create characters and situations and dialogue and revise and experience moments of despair and the occasional euphoria when things come together and almost write themselves. I know some writers or ‘content providers’ think that's so analogue, but it’s like asking someone else to live your life for you – what’s the point? More leisure time?  You have to create the beast yourself and feel the pain.

It is a pity AI can’t help me find more readers, however. On that point I get many, many scam pleas to assist me with marketing my work – especially with book clubs or whatever. Some of these very detailed and clearly AI generated emails use all the available material about my books on-line and use flattery to sway your interest. Some of these scam’s purport to come from a well-known editor from established publishers or even famous writers. Quite why they’d bother given their busy lives, but I suppose some people fall for it and find themselves sending large sums of money to Nigeria. The Society of Authors often warns about this. Ironically if every scammer bought a copy of Saving Shannon I'd have a bestseller! I got one today and it is full of good advice but I just know there's a rabbit hole of costs awaiting me if I reply.

One company that promotes self-published authors and isn’t actually a scam, has an entreaty that for a considerable sum boasts of placing your book on an electronic billboard in Times Square! Well, that ten second burst of exposure to an empty square on a rainy day might temp someone I guess, but would that make you buy that book?  It’s hard enough walking into a bookshop to check out new titles and make a decision. Have you noticed how every single YA or Fantasy or Sci-Fi book looks identical now – still copying Leigh Bardougo’s earlier covers.

If you aren’t in a bookshop with your title, it is very hard to be found on Amazon. (Especially if you don’t have Dua Lipa rooting for you). That is why I have been refreshing a couple of my backlist that I felt deserved more attention. (J&K 4Ever and Girl with Cat Blue). Both are more striking now but how to be found? That is the question?
 
Perhaps by time you read this the Mid-Terms will be over. The war against Iran will have restarted and you’ll panicking about heating bills and how to afford to fill up your car. So, none of the above will matter a fig.
Have a great November and hey, buy one of my books for someone for Christmas or their birthday.
cheers
Sam Hawksmoor 3/11/26

New 2026 Saving Shannon A Dying Town, A Falling Start, A Closely Guarded Secret - a new novel from Sam Hawksmoor Hammer & Tong – KDP ISBN: 978-1-7385181-3-5 Published 2026 When a huge meteor slams into the mountain near Bryce, the ridge is transformed into a hellscape of steam and fire. The locals are cut off from communications with the outside and gripped by rumors that it was an alien spaceship that crashed to earth. People are vanishing and alien activity is suspected. Then the army arrives and intend to round everyone up for 'tests'. Why? What is going in this small forgotten town...' UK Print (and Ebook available now) for USA go to Amazon.com 'A gripping science-fiction thriller packed with mysery, suspense, heart and unforgettable characters.'

Saving Shannon began with a dream.  Quite a number of my stories start out that way – a glimpse of something an event, a moment and it stays with you for a long time, so you have to deal with it. I remember ‘The Repossession of Genie Magee’ began with a dream of an immense flood and my protagonists struggling to survive it. ‘J&K 4Ever’ was initiated by a dream of a young orphan in an oppressive situation desperate to know the name of her mother yet scared to find out the identity of her father. The meteor falling out of the sky nearly boiling Shannon alive as she was looking for her fox was the dream that started the new story. (I have pretty vivid dreams, but these are just the start of stories, not the whole thing alas). Somehow Shannon survives, many don't, but rumors abound that this was not a meteor but an alien spaceship and everything escalates from there.

The fox is the reason she’s in the woods, it’s wild but responds to her because she raised it when abandoned by the mother. Foxes have been a lifelong interest for me. Apparently when I was a little child, I used to write letters to the foxes and made my father leave them in the woods. Clearly the three-year-old me assumed Foxes could read and since I’m pretty sure I couldn’t yet do cursive writing; god knows what was on those scraps of paper. In my last house a Fox used to sleep in a sunbeam in the garden and never ran away when I was out there gardening. I remember she brought her pups there to show them where they could be ‘safe’.

Saving Shannon isn’t a story about foxes of course, it’s a way into a novel about Shannon and isolation, misinformation, and fear of aliens. It doesn’t matter if you believe in aliens or not, the fact is there is a distinct possibility in the age of AI that we can be manipulated to believe they are real and fear them.

Shannon is a bright but lonely young girl, home-schooled by Astrid her AI tutor and loves her fox, Silver. She was adopted by Dr Jongh an astrophysicist, but pretty much left to raise herself. She has one friend, Lola, who four years before cared for her when Shannon was desperately ill. Lola is older at 19 and they don’t see much of each other since she’s working running the local hotel. The other main character is Mika, the insurance claims adjuster sent to assess the damage from the meteor but now caught up in the whirlwind of fear about alien activity and missing people. He’s trapped there now, but quickly discovers he’s needed, and Shannon learns to trust him.

Starting a novel with a major disaster is a challenge. So much will happen to everyone. When I was tackling a major pandemic in ‘Another Place to Die: Endtime Chronicles’ I was careful to start the story when it was already was well established and heading towards Vancouver. In ‘J&K 4Ever’ another dystopian story, it’s set in the USA a good fifty years from now after a major event shut down the whole country and it is divided into little kingdoms run by warlords or religious fanatics. No one reliably remembers what happened to end civilization.

In Saving Shannon everything that happens commences from the huge bolt of fire from the skies. Aside from the localized destruction it triggers a paranoid response. It’s a small community, a dying mining town immediately cut off from the rest of the world and somehow the idea that this is an alien invasion takes hold, especially when the army arrives to begin testing everyone for alien DNA.

What is real? What is fake? Who can you trust and why are so many people going missing? And what is Shannon’s secret and why is Lola so keen to prevent anyone finding out. It’s all there for readers to discover.
I hope you will join me on Shannon’s journey.
Ist Chapter Taster here

'Whatever Happened to Genie Magee?' Book 4 in The Repossession of Genie Magee series In a world where rich people want to live forever - a girl who never seems to age would be a tempting target. Her DNA would be very valuable indeed... Genie wakes up with a head injury from serious car wreck. She has no memory of the crash, or who she is. It appears this might have been a kidnap gone wrong. The abrasions on her wrists indicated she was tied up in the back of the burning vehicle. As she begins to recover her identity, she accidentally discovers a graphic novel is serializing her life, in horrific detail.  Her therapist is deeply skeptical this could be true and worries for her sanity. But all she can think of is, why is this happening to her? And how can she stop them? Extract from Chapter One here USA Amazon print link Reviews: a cleverly written follow up on Genie Magee's adventures 'A welcome and ultimately reassuring novel about life, memory, and friendship.' Amazon

Background to Whatever Happened to Genie Magee:

Many years ago I was involved in a really bad car crash. A van jumped the lights and hit my Alfa Romeo sideways on at full tilt. My head shattered the windscreen and I woke up some hours later in hospital with no memory of any accident (I still have no memory of it, only what was told to me). It took a couple of weeks to get my memory back and even then there were gaps for a long time afterwards.

This event naturally informed my approach to Genie Magee waking up to discover that she had been in a car wreck where the driver is dead and she has no memory of who she is or anything that had happened to her prior to that event. It happens to a lot of people apparently and recovering memory is a long process. Your brain is like a bell vibrating long after the incident and takes a while to repair itself. Luckily a head is hard. (I had up to twenty stitches up there from a childhood accident and now a fresh set of stitches just ahead of that collection.)

Genie is lucky, no need for stitches, but nevertheless she has all the confusion of being a survivor and unable to even recall if she likes coffee or tea or where she lives. It is quite an experience to get through.

I was pleasantly surprised to get an email from a reader the moment the book came out that she too had long been thinking about what had happened to Genie. She read the first book when twenty years old and now she’s a mother of two kids and knows only too well all the dangers involved in raising children and being a mother.  She was very fond of Genie Magee and like me, on occasion wondered about the state of her mental health following all the traumatic events she went through  That’s why I wrote the book. To find out and make amends in a way.  Genie and her friends are not forgotten. ** You don't have to have read the first three books. It's a stand alone story.
author of 'We Feel your Pain' & 'The Book of Ashes' and The Repossession of Genie Magee series

About 'The Book of Ashes': ISBN: 979-8-837434-952 ASIN: B0B85HFK86 Hammer & Tong - September 2022 - ebook & Print "Great characters, a gripping mystery and the wonderful return of Rufus the dog."BH 'an immensely satisfying story' - Walli Leff on Goodreads. 'a fun read with unique elements ... exemplary in its voice and style' 'Judge, 10th Annual Writer's Digest E-Book Awards My new mystery novel The Book of Ashes is published.  It’s the second Delaney and Asha investigation following ‘We Feel Your Pain’. Now they have set up on their own – their next client is a young cryptocurrency millionaire who commissioned a biography of his father, now suffering from dementia.  Only the writer disappeared with the $10,000 advance.  It seems like a simple track and trace job, but of course, it turns into a total horror show.

Happy reading. Berg City awaits you. Order now

**About writing 'Mission Longshot' a sc-fi space adventure

Earth 2032 - The climate has changed - food is running short. War is imminent. Whole cities are in danger of going under water fifty years before they said they would. Mankind is in real danger. Naturally you're going to build a spaceship to take the best and brightest to a new world. 3000 kids essentially put into deep freeze for a 70-year journey into space.

Moonbase 2057 - The first light-speed spaceship is about to be tested. (Despite eight billion dollar explosive failures so far). News comes in that the Colony ship has been struck by asteroids on Year 23 of it's journey. There is one survivor, Celeste Kandar. She knows no one can rescue her - she's going to be alone for the rest of her life. If the light-speed ship works they could rescue Celeste - What could possibly go wrong?

Earth: Millennial's Eve 1999 - Gerry is waiting for aliens to land. If there was ever a time to attack Y2K night is the night.

It's a real voyage of discovery for Celeste exploring a nearby planet that just might be trying to kill her and the kids attempting to rescue her on a flight that might be a one way ticket...

More about Climate fiction

© Sam Hawksmoor 2026 - *The Sam Hawksmoor Books List and other links

The Repossession of Genie Magee returns in a new Kindle & print edition Combining the elements of science fiction, mystery and supernatural, it is definitely one of the best, and most fascinating, debut novels I've ever read. more Read another review here

The Hunting of Genie Magee returns in a new Kindle and print edition Genie and Rian must flee down the river with a $10,000 price on their heads. They must fight for their right to exist. more

'We Feel Your Pain' by Sam Hawksmoor ISBN-13: 979-8699087693 Published by Hammer & Tong Print or Kindle from Amazon Reviews: '...a captivating adventure which could be compared to a Roald Dahl tale filmed by Wes Anderson ...where rythm, wit, humour and punchy dialogue mix with irrepressible, warm sentiment...' 'I really enjoyed living with Delaney, Asha and Maria. And I particularly revelled in that obedient and loving dog, Rufus.  They were lovely characters and it was a good story. The author evokes amazing, vivid pictures'. Delaney and Asha run the Office of Berg City Oversight. Their role is to expose the scams, keep the city safe from unscrupulous people.  When something looks too good to be true – it’s a scam, right?  But what if the scam works?  What kind of scam is that? When Delaney finds himself left for dead at the bottom of a cliff he gets the message - someone doesn't want him near their honeypot.

‘We Feel Your Pain - So you don't have to ’. Read the first book in the series now so you're primed for the next Delaney and Asha investigation - The Book of Ashes.

Took some time to design a new cover this summer for Girl with Cat (Blue) and the back cover tells the start of the whole thing. Jules comes face to face with her double in the painting and falls in love with the Cat! The Screenplay for Girl with Cat (Blue) made the Quarter Finals for ISA Connect International Adventure Screenplay Competition - you can read the fantasy novel now. The Sara Troy interview with Sam Hawksmoor 1.12.21 About the Writing of Girl with Cat Blue here

More about Sam Hawksmoor and his writing background here
Hammer &Tong (UK) is a small indie publisher of Sam Hawksmoor's books
Based in Lincolnshire - all messages via Sam Hawksmoor contact page

* Background research on anti-gravity here - **Thinkpiece: What if you read a book you loved and never told anyone, especially the writer? more What did you want to be when you were a child?.... more One question I used to dislike the most when a kid was ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ more Kindle for The Heaviness - Sam in Canada More Background to Genie Magee's world. Search and you'll find some extra stories about the main characters. * If you write me on old fashioned email, I do check and will write back as soon as I can. see Contact 'Terrifying alternative outcome to WW2 - the Blitz brought vividly to life.' THE REPERCUSSIONS of Tomas D Tomas accidentally goes back in time to London in the Blitz. Captured and tortured for what he knows about the war... WW11 abruptly ends in 1941. The day after Tomas disappears, his girlfriend Gabriella wakes up to realise she's the only one who remembers that Germany was supposed to have lost the war... Sample Chapter here THE HEAVINESS of Genie Magee (Book Three) Someone with a grudge wants Genie dead. Rian is kidnapped and forced to do experiments. Genie and Renée have just 36 hours to find Rian or he dies - but the one person who can help is aleady dead. Gravity isn't the only thing that can pull you down... 'The best Genie Magee story... It might just break your heart.'