Such a September 2026 Update
Goodness it’s been a while since I posted, apologies, but there’s a lot to cover including upcoming PUBLICATIONS (wheee!) and EVENTS and just a little bit of life. Let’s get cracking.
Publication!!
As We Fall Through Time is out imminently! Specifically it’s available in Hardback, Audio and Ebook on October 13th. And honestly, I think this one is fun. It tells a couple of stories that quickly become entangled into one massive, time-travelling, world-hopping mystery. Cal, a perfectly affable time traveller with a fondness for modern plumbing and bubble bath finds himself drawn into a relationship with a soldier at the height of the French Revolution. Unfortunately, being the French Revolution, that same soldier just keeps on trying his damnest to get killed by the endless unfolding calamity that is Europe at the time, from the fall of the King all the way through to Napoleon’s march to Waterloo. Cal must… not exactly break, but certainly bend a few rules to protect his cavalier, with results no one could really have predicted.
Meanwhile, Fadimatu, a time traveller with a preference for quiet archives and diligent research, is discombobulated to stumble upon her own corpse in a museum. Again: consequences. Oh the consequences. Consequences which quickly expand to threaten all of time and space, and shenanigans ensue.
Once again the audiobook is read by the fabulous Peter Kenny, who manages to make everything better damnit, and so far a bunch of very lovely people seem to have enjoyed it and even been kind enough to say nice things! Whoop!
https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/claire-north/as-we-fall-through-time/9780356526232
A Left-Field Surprise Publication…
Do you remember my Top Secret Project I was working on in 2025? OF COURSE YOU DON’T, IT WAS SECRET. Well, secret no more, as I can finally blabber about how what I was actually doing was helping write a video game! Specifically, this video game….
It’s hard to express what a nice time I had working with the fine folks at Total Mayhem Games, and how welcoming, intelligent and kind they were as I bimbled madly into their universe. Notoriously the video game industry can be… well, a lot, but I genuinely don’t have a bad word to say about the experience and with my nerd hat on, am so grateful to have been allowed to play in a medium I have always loved. We Were Here Tomorrow is out October 20th on Playstation, Xbox and Steam, and I have already started nobbling mates to play it with…
Events!
I’m just gonna take these in chronological order….
Not about me at all, but I’ll be around after if anyone randomly wants a book signed… I’m interviewing Paul Trembley on October 22nd at St. Swithin’s Church in Bath! As always my interview style is somewhat Chaos Goblin, so I hope he’s braced….
France! Le train est en retard! Which can only mean, you guessed it, I’m coming back to the absolutely fabulous Utopiales Festival in Nantes! There’s a bunch of events I’m gonna be doing while there, as well as signings etc., so do seek me out. There is also talk of an event in Brest with the truly wonderful Audrey Pleynet maybe on November 3rd, so if you’re around, please come say bonjour. (Utopiales is not only one of the best festivals I’ve ever been to, it also has some of the best simultaneous translation I’ve ever encountered, so please don’t worry – I won’t in fact be butchering French more than I already have.)
Kent! On November 28th myself and the wonderful award-winning E.J. Swift and Natasha Pulley are getting together at Chatham Library as part of the Medway River Lit Festival to dissect all things climate crisis, literature and cli-fi – a topic which can feel, let’s not kid ourselves, grim, but where there is also a lot of hope to be found both in our chat and, fingers crossed, our books!
https://www.medwayriverlit.co.uk/post/medway-river-lit-2026-preview
Life
Not gonna lie, things have been a bit of a rollercoaster. The Great House Move has been ongoing since 2025. Technically I got the keys to my new home in March 2025, but the place had been abandoned for 7 years and was, oh goodness, a fixer-upper. We spent a huge amount of time and effort in 2025 getting it to the point where we could live in it safely (electrics that didn’t sizzle, hot water, a flushing toilet etc.) and frankly, were so knackered by the time we actually got the bed built that we sorta… stopped. Thus, half the gaff is still unpainted, no shelves have gone up, most of my belongings are still in boxes, the kitchen needs tiling… but at least the kitchen sink drains into actual pipes instead of buckets now, and did you know there are different thread types BSP vs. NPT waste pipe connections? I didn’t. Goodness I did not. But I do now. It will be a wonderful home when it’s done, and I’ve done my best to put my money where my mouth is and take the time to make it as eco-friendly as possible. New Year was spent in the loft in full hazmat gear unfolding a small valley’s worth of wool insulation, there’s a heat pump out back and I’ve got a solar survey coming in the next few weeks too. To be able to do all of this is an extraordinary privilege, and someit I’d have tried to do even if it didn’t (hopefully) pay itself back in the coming years.
All of which is to say, domestically things have been… chaotic. Combined with some low-level chronic medical stuff, finishing up The Next Novel (!) and a bit more Top Secret Project work that is nothing to do with any of the above, and I’ve been a bit knackered. But I’m still sometimes making it to lovely escrima, and try to keep up regular attendance at a couple of Repair Cafes, where I volunteer to fix small electricals if I can. I’m also still doing gigs, albeit fewer, and recently had a lovely week teaching with the fabulous Laura Shepperson at Ty Newydd. If you are looking for a creative writing course run by lovely people at a reasonable price and can get yourself to Cardigan Bay, then this is the one.
And I think that’s it. It doesn’t seem like that much, when I see it written down, but believe you me… the tea has been guzzled and the keyboard grown greasy from all these labours, and fingers crossed you will enjoy at least some of the results….
