The first episode of the webcomic I write with my brother Josh is up. Every week the episodes will go up here as well as on the Kristell Ink Facebook page.
Patreon donors get more episodes, of course.
Grim and Bold Episode 001
Speculative Fiction Showcase – The Sky Slayer
My new book, The Sky Slayer, has been featured on the Speculative Fiction Showcase! Check it out.
About The Sky Slayer:
All who kill a pterosaur are cursed. But Rob Sardan went a step further – he killed their King.
To break the curse he must escape a prison of ice and crystal, south of south, beyond all hope. With a ragtag team of former pirates, a failed thief and a strategist who cannot be trusted, they seek a ship that can sail on a sea of fire.
They must cross the grinding ice, challenge an empire, and face the dread pirate Skagra before she unleashes the Crown of Black Glass. But above all, Rob must face the ghosts of what he has become…
King Killer. Sword-breaker. Sky Slayer.
‘Glory is like a circle in the water which never ceaseth to enlarge itself, till, by broad spreading, it disperses to naught’.Excerpt:
The sea had broken him. Rob Sardan had looked into the waters and had seen his reflection. In the storms, the red winds, and the cold, he had learned what he was. He had wanted to be a hero, but what had he turned into?
King-killer. Sky-slayer. Sword-breaker.
A squawk distracted him, and he looked into a snow speckled tree. Nestled in the needles was a lizard-bird, its silver and white wings making it difficult to discern. Rob gave it a smile, and it chattered its toothy beak. It was the first living thing besides his captors and fellow prisoners that he had seen in two years. The thought sent a hollow feeling into him, and he felt the chasm of the future; a void of snow and isolation at the end of the world.
The Sky Slayer is coming
To be a Sky Slayer, to tear the fabric of the air, and to slay its keeper, is no small thing. You will be remembered, you will be heralded, and you will be cursed. All the glory will shatter, as the winds were shattered, and your dreams shall be red. The pterosaurs do not forgive.
The air-keepers will follow you, even into sleep.
Rob Sardan dreamed of being a hero like his mother before him. But when it happened, the whole world fell apart.
Locked in a tower of crystal that reaches beyond the edge of the sky, set in the middle of a vast tundra of snow, separated from the rest of the world by sea of grinding ice, and protected by the Pengish Empire. Rob faces an endless imprisonment, fighting the curse of the Sky Slayer.
But then, a stranger comes to town.
Rob builds a crew for his escape. A strategical genius who says she has built a ship that can surpass all others, a failed thief who can’t keep his mouth shut, (but Rob falls in love with him anyway), a former pirate turned pacifist, an aging Doctor with a sly humour, and a shrouded history, and two rescued traders out for revenge against the dread pirate Skagra.
Out on the sea, chaos is rising. Skagra seeks the ending of the world, and she lures all to the tomb of the Dead God. There lies the Crown of Black Glass. There lies the darkest history of this world. And there lies the key to its ending.
Rob must face these dangers. He must face this curse. And he must face what he has become:
King Killer.
Sword-breaker.
Sky Slayer.
Released on 10th September 2016, from Kristell Ink, an imprint of Grimbold Books.
Pre-order: eBook // Paperback (coming soon)
Why you should read The Sea-Stone Sword
With the launch of The Sky Slayer just a month away, it’s the perfect time to read The Sea-Stone Sword.
The tale of a young boy who wants nothing more than to become a hero in a world where there are no heroes, only villains who win. It digs into what it means to be a hero, and how power corrupts even those with the best of intentions. But more than all that, it has so much more to offer the reader. 
- Full of diverse characters
- Has dinosaurs in it
- Listed on Feminist Fantasy
- Gay main character
- In fact, everyone in this book is either gay, bisexual, or asexual
- Beautiful cover art by Evelinn Enoksen
- Did I mention the dinosaurs?
- May contain puns
- Only £9 in Paperback
- Only £2 on eBook
If you love your fantasy to be diverse, full of dinosaurs, and lovingly put together by an independent publisher, try The Sea-Stone Sword!
Click HERE to buy from:
Amazon UK
Smashwords
Barnes and Noble
Book Depository (FREE worldwide shipping!)
Waterstones
Reviews:
In this interesting debut by Joel Cornah, The Sea-Stone Sword is filled with tons of capable female characters and interesting moral and philosophical questions… It is filled with tons of action and there is never a dull moment. If anyone is looking for something a little different in their fantasy, The Sea-Stone Sword is it!
(4 Stars)
– Readers Favourite
Joel Cornah’s debut novel is refreshingly unusual take on swashbuckling heroic fantasy that explores the sometimes-ragged line between heroism and villainy. There is no black and white here, every colourful character has many shades of grey. It’s also refreshing to see so many LGBT characters featured prominently in the novel. He’s created an intricate world of pirates, dinosaurs, broken gods and penguins (yes, penguins) that extends far over the edges of the map. I think this is the start of a long and promising career.
(5 stars)
– Joanne Hall (Author of Spark and Carousel)
Well wow! I wasn’t sure what to expect when I signed up for a review copy of The Sea Stone Sword but Joel Cornah just blew all my expectations out the window with his intriguing and conflicted characters, a brilliant, original and exciting new fantasy world, and the stunning prose throughout the novel. ‘The Sea Stone Sword’ really is a fantastic read.
(5 stars)
– Quill and Bookcase
This book is the kind of epic fantasy I wish I was reading every day. The pacing never really slows down, yet the fast-moving and tense story doesn’t stop major themes from emerging.
This is such an original, honest, and brutal take on the hero’s journey, I’m not sure I can read your typical boys-goes-out-to-become-a-hero again.
(5 stars)
– Claudie Arseneault (Author of The White Renegade)
If you’re looking for a fantasy novel that doesn’t resemble the typical “medieval England with dragons” formula, you’ve found it! The plot is action-packed and full of twists and turns, so the story never drags. The Sea-Stone Sword is a new and refreshing take on the genre!
(5 Stars)
– JLS Amazon Review
Is Patreon the Future for Genre Publishing?
My latest article on Sci-Fi Fantasy Network;
Is Patreon the future for genre publishing? Specifically, for small press and self published authors, where the pressures are much more acute. The small press arena can be a market much more open to new talent, taking risks, and doing things the larger publishers would hesitate to try. The openness and team spirit a lot of independent publishers can boast has made them much more attractive recently.
Indeed, even some authors who have had books published by traditional big companies have turned to small press for riskier projects and things that may fall outside a larger house’s remit. Tom Lloyd, for example, author of the Twilight Reign series, which was published by Gollancz (part of the Hachette group), has turned to independent publisher Kristell Ink for his new novellas.
But generally speaking, independent publishing is a place ripe for up and coming authors to get their first step on the ladder as well as develop their skills and networks. The drawback, of course, being the fact that they have nowhere near the spending power of the bigger publishers.
First blog post
Just testing out this whole blog thing. See how it works.
I’m kind of interested to see how the whole thing is organised and if it will involve a lot of faffing around to keep it regularly updated.
Anyway, here’s a picture of a peng in armour.
Joel Cornah 