Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 27/09/2026March was the last time I worked on my first true fantasy novel. Now I’ve got The Raven’s Message knocked into shape, I can now afford the time to be creative and work on the Lord of the Glass Warriors. I prefer writing to editing I must say. Huzzah. 020
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 13/09/2026If that’s not enough, my third novel the Ghostly Menagerie will also re-released in the new year All will be be expanded and re-mastered under my own imprint Mack The Magpie Books. Cover reveals soon. 😀 043
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 13/09/2026The sequels are a coming. First The Raven’s Message which should be out Oct 31st. Then Pawns of Prophecy: Impossible Fruit Too will be out at the end of Feb. In addition both the above books will be revised with new covers to coincide with their sequels’ release.… 153
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Thanks Rod. Been away a while, but new books coming soon. 120
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 02/09/2026I ditched my personal Twitter account today. It was a long time coming. I will use twitter in future as an outlet for professional updates but it probably will be under a Magpie Universe handle. The first years on Twitter were fab. Lately it’s a cesspit. 020
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 08/07/2026Start at the beginning Val, if you are interested. The back story is as good as the ongoing mysteries. 110
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 08/07/2026Got my new @sirbenfro.bsky.social Inspector McClean book. So excited. This series has been an inspiration to me. The police procedural with a nuance of the supernatural- my readers will be familiar with such themes in The Secret Magpie - but this isn’t about me - go out and get the McClean books! 230
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 21/06/2026Happy Father’s Day to those who can celebrate with their dads and kids, or to those who have to remember. This was my dad as a young man when he played for West Bromwich Albion 1954-56. He passed just after my 18th birthday and has been missed ever since. 060
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 18/06/2026As always, it’s a delight to get a new UNIT book from @candyjarbooks.bsky.social - The Vaughn Supremacy by @mrbrell - not to mention the latest edition of the Benton Novellas. Congratulations all, I’m sure this will be marvellous. 062
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 11/05/2026Oh please. Let them also be over 126 pages too, with concepts too big for the tv screen. 020
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 19/04/2026Thousands of books and I couldn’t decide what to read. So @JaceMacky gave me a bookcase number (2) a shelf number (4) and 5th book from the left. How ironic my library spat this one out from her coordinates. Cheers loves. 50 pages in and it’s fab @marklawrenceauthor.bsky.social 0122
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 27/03/2026I’ve stepped back into Roarhaven after a wee while. I really enjoyed Mind Full of Murder. So much so I was smirking viscerally all the way through. And that might just be my new sorcerer name. @dereklandy.bsky.social a marvellous new volume thanks! 040
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 18/03/2026Finally, but with an overwhelming sense of loss, I have finished the Rirya Revelations. #michaeljsullivan has created a wonderful world full of brilliant characters both good, evil, and in between. Marvellous. 020
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 14/03/2026The lad in the middle is a musician. I have dabbled too with recording. I might just have it as my own album cover. 020
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 14/03/2026Still think this is the best photo I’ve ever taken. Of my three sons at sunset in Sennen Cove 2017. They are all adults now, but boys then. 💙 1101
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 26/02/2026That will be tomorrow in middle age time. Or at least it feels like it these days. 010
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 14/02/2026This is likely to be 180-200k. I promise irregular updates over the next planned six months writing time. The Lord of the Glass Warriors will soon arise. 130
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 14/02/202610,000 word, three chapter mark. I know it irritates some people when writers post word counts. I, however, make no apologies. It’s the first hurdle for me, and the first hurdle in a much longer steeplechase. My previous books have weighed in at 90-120k…cont.. 330
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 14/02/2026What is this brightness that blinds me so. ‘‘Tis magic after all that grey. 010
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 25/01/2026The dark fantasy in the series will only grow, so I will be marketing them as such. 000
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 25/01/2026I’m eventually going to go in a completely different direction for this book, and the subsequent books in the series, I want to market them as the supernatural dark fantasy they are, rather than police procedural. I confused punters with my placement - witches and magic in a serial killer drama 110
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 25/01/2026This was my first go at doing a cover for myself. The picture is the same image David Collins used on the original book. I took this pic and it’s a photo of Stowe Pool Lichfield the city I live in and where the book is set. 100
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 25/01/2026The stories were written in 2018-19 and some were fully published. It’s time to polish these gems and release them@to new readers along with the new volume. 020
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 25/01/2026David Collins original cover was excellently iconic , but with a change in my employment has led me to begin doing my own covers. This is my second go at one. Any comments happily accepted. I wanted to evoke the 80s influences that led me to compile this. 100
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 25/01/2026Proof of concept alert. I will be rereleasing Impossible Fruit later this year to tie in with the release of Impossible Fruit Too. To that end I wanted to revise the cover. This is probably near to the final image I’d like to use. 110
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 25/01/2026And so it begins. My first full fantasy novel. It’s a working title, no doubt it will change. I’ve been reading Eddings, Hobb, Feist, Brooks and Jordan on the lead up to this. So hopefully some of the fantasy magic of my boyhood authors will rub off. 031
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 13/01/2026It’s been so long since I’ve got a review for this, my first novel. The review numbers are so low, considering the copies I have sold in the last three years, that when I do get one it’s marvellous. Thanks Georgia. 002
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 13/01/2026www.goodreads.com/review/show/...goodreads.comGeorgia Barrett's review of The Secret Magpie4/5: Wow, what a book! I didn’t know there was parts of the storyline introduced in a previous book, so at the beginning I was confused and trying to piece things together. I almost feel it made it mo... 011
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 05/01/2026Tremendous. Especially the spookiness. #nospoilers 010
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 05/01/2026First read of the new year. @sirbenfro.bsky.social Rest Is Death. Police Procedure with underlying supernatural terror. Marvellous. James is an inspiration for me and he also wrote the Sir Benfro fantasy series as #jdoswald. 110
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 24/12/2025Merry Christmas to all my writing, reading, Whovian, and Blake 7 friends. Here’s to a marvellous 2026. 050
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 01/12/2025Another trilogy reread from the books I originally had as a teenager. This time the Sword of Shannara. It’s the omnibus version, another big book with lots of little writing as my wife would say. 020
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 23/11/2025Happy Doctor Who day friends. 62 years and counting. And happy birthday Nanny Mack who would be 112 if she wasn’t off elsewhere in the universe. 030
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 29/10/2025I’ve gone straight to Silverthorn by Feist, the sequel to Magician. Again the first 100 pages are incredible as the threat of evil comes to the surface. Loved Jimmy the Hand in the 80s. He still stands tall as an excellent character. ❤️ 120
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 28/10/2025Finished this wonderful book, Magician by Feist. My first reread in many years. Such a grand tale, and an easy read. World building is magnificent and the character development sublime. Probably my favourite book after the Belgariad by Eddings and Eye of the World by Jordan. ❤️ 020
Gary J Mack @garyjmack.bsky.social · 18/10/2025When you are in you fifties but your pre- orders suggest you are still 14. @ultravoxofficial.bsky.social @simplemindsmusic.bsky.social @marillion.com 020