The most awkward thing happened yesterday, and it could've landed your Overlord & Saviour in BIG trouble.
Whilst cooking a very British Sunday dinner (beef & ale pie, buttery mash, garlic peas, and gravy), Lady Laura strode into the kitchen with lips pursed so tightly they turned white.
"What's up?" I asked.
"You know how I think Nathan is going to be an incurable flirt with the ladies?"
"Yes…" I said.
"Well, look at what I just found him doing."
(Bearing in mind Nathan is only five days away from turning one!)
She then proceeded to show me a photo on her phone of him with a rather cheeky grin, holding the remote control. Behind him on the TV screen in big, bold, neon colours, was Pure Babes – a late-night adult channel.
Of course, we barrelled with laughter.
I might even have quietly punched the air and said, "That's my boy!
But then a thought struck me, and those waves of laughter were swiftly replaced with something closer to…
ABJECT HORROR.
What if Laura didn't see Nathan commit this act of deviance?
What if, instead, she turned on the television and bam! right there in all her glory is Magic Maggie gyrating her hips and wagging her mobile phone like it's a bag of Skittles, waiting for some perv to call her?
She wouldn't look at Nathan or Liam.
She would look at me!
No matter how many times I'd plead my case, or suggest it might have been the boys fiddling with the remote controller yet again, it wouldn't wash.
Not without some serious doubts lingering.
So, off to the doghouse I'd have gone.
Alas, I was spared the awkward misery of having to explain myself out of that one. Thank God. The only things I'm guilty of are being impossibly handsome, wholly insufferable, and a writer of fast-paced epic fantasy that has very little fat.
After all, there's nothing worse than wading through a fantasy novel and, by the end of it, feeling like nothing happened.
Well, that's not the case with The Divided Region.
However, to maintain this breakneck speed, I must make some cutbacks on the lore, the descriptions, and all the little details that might otherwise make the world feel a little more 'lived in.'
For me, that's a fair trade-off.
Perhaps it is for you, too.
But there are also many readers who love to learn the histories of the realm, those small geographical details, and all the fauna and flora that call it home.
To those people, I present to you Lore & Order – the companion guide to The Divided Region.
It hands you those small yet significant details my stories never could without grinding the pace to a halt. Currently, it's only available as an ebook, but once Book 7 is published, I'll be producing it in audiobook and paperback.
Until then, you can get the ebook version right here:
https://djjwatsonstore.com/products/lore-and-order
(No funky surprises or Magic Maggies are waiting on the other side of this link.)
DJJW