The Stealer of Worlds

“All the problems I have resolved and the lives I have saved on a hundred worlds…” – Ballisargon

The Stealer of Worlds was the first Young Adult novel I wrote, between 2002-2005. While the central idea didn’t exactly come to me in a dream (the last person on a stolen earth has been used by writers for decades), I *did* wake up with the book’s original first line bouncing around in my head. So, perhaps where a lot of people think writers get their ideas (dreams) is partly true 🙂

So, I then had to drive into work trying to remember this sentence – I kept repeating it over and over to myself, trying not to change it in a game of solo Chinese whispers as I rattled up the motorway to my day job!

Once it was written down – first lines are *really* important – then came the hard part – writing the rest of the book! 3 years, 6 drafts, over 120,000 words written and then changed, re-written or even thrown away (the book is now about 94,000 words long), I had the finished thing.

In all that time and work, the first line has changed several times, and I hope you still think it is a good one.

So, if you want to be one of the first people to read that opening line, and the rest of the book, and to find out before anyone else what it means for Robert, then you can get a copy from Amazon using the link below. In the story you’ll learn what happens to Robert after that first line and the effect it has on what should have been another normal day at school.

Buy from Amazon

But The Stealer of Worlds is only the start of the story. It won’t be Robert’s only encounter with Ballisargon or his fearsome Glass Molluscs. Their paths will cross again in the double sequel Ballisargon/Mollusc Unbound, when Robert will have to face them both once more. And this time, he may even have to choose a side…

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