“The beginning is always today.”
Mary Shelley
2024 is over! It was a bit of a rollercoaster of a year. There were ups and downs, but we made it through. But now it’s 2025 and we get to start it all over again! Who knows what it might hold, but before we look to the future, I want to stop and reflect on the previous twelve months.
For me, 2024 was the Year of the Book:
1. My debut novel, New Gillion Street, was released in January by Fly on the Wall Press (thank you to everyone who bought it.)
2. I wrote a book about grief in the spring, a 115k brute, which I’m still busily working on. (I’m trying - and failing, I might add - to make it smaller.)
3. I edited a 67k-word novel and subbed it to 40 literary agents in the summer… to no avail. (Arguably, it’s the strangest book I’ve written.)
4. Finally, I self-published a short story collection, The Strange Tales of Gillion, in December (thanks also to everyone who bought this book.)
So, as you can see, I was a busy little bee… but the Year of the Book isn’t going to be a one-off…
Some of you have probably already seen this online, but let’s do it here for formality:
It’s my great pleasure to announce that my second novel, The Peculiar Journey of Cecil Tabiner, will be published by the fantastic Northodox Press in 2026!!!
I’m humbled and honoured, and I can’t wait for this book to be released. I don’t know how I’ll contain myself for another twelve to sixteen months. Expect to hear a lot from me from now until 2026.
Here’s my description of the book to whet your appetites:
After an unscheduled stop, Cecil Tabiner finds himself on the Templewood Express, a tardy yet beautiful locomotive which passes through the picturesque North Gillion countryside. With his past nipping at his heels, he embarks on a thoroughly peculiar series of adventures, causing him to wonder whether he’ll ever reach his destination with his mind and body intact.
EXCITING!
Myself and the Northodox team – comprising Amy, James and Ted – will spend the year making this modern day Gillion story as perfect as possible for your literary consumption.
Here’s a little about the press in their own words:
Northodox Press is an independent publisher established in 2020, based in Sheffield and Manchester. Our mission is to elevate northern voices and represent the diversity of writing from Northern England.
As of 2023, we cater to readers of general fiction and genre fiction. If you're exhausted by a book market oversaturated with stories of a London-centric Britain or the cosy Cotswolds, look no further.
In the digital age, we're no longer confined by the traditional borders of publishing. Northern voices deserve to be heard, our stories need to be present.
Northodox Press are a brilliant publisher and a stalwart of the Northern Fiction Alliance. I’ve met them numerous times at bookish events and have many of their books, so I know for a fact that my quirky, weird novel is safe in their hands.
I’d like to say thank you to everyone who supported me last year. My writing career wouldn’t exist without you!
As for what this year might bring? It will be another Year of the Book… or maybe I should say the Year of the Book 2: The Sequel. I’ll be working on that second book for 2026, and I’m sure I’ll finally get around to writing that fantasy novel that I’ve been on and off planning for months.
Bring on 2025!
Elliot J Harper
Author of quirky SF novel, New Gillion Street, published by Fly on the Wall Press, the short story collection, The Strange Tales of Gillion, and upcoming novel, The Peculiar Journey of Cecil Tabiner, to be published by Northodox Press.