Yes, you read that right. ‘The Shield Road‘ is now available to buy, in paperback and ebook. You can buy it on Amazon here or over here on Kobo!
If you’ve not heard anything about it yet, you can find a bunch of info about it here.
And the rest of this post is just going to be me musing over how weird it is to have a book finished at last, so stick around if that’s what you’re into.
I wrote the first of the 14 short stories in Shield Road in January last year; over a year ago. Since then we’ve lost both our cats, gained a puppy, and something else…
Oh yeah, endured a global pandemic which fundamentally flipped our entire world upside down. That happened.
In the book, the ‘shield road’ is what they call the path walked by the lone warrior. It’s a metaphor for hard living and isolation – they have nobody or nothing to carry their shield, they must carry all their burdens and equipment alone. As 2020 wore on, I became even more determined to write this book. I felt the shield road was an apt metaphor for what we were all dealing with at the moment.
And yet, the book (MILD SPOILER) ends on a hopeful note. The lone adventurers have found each other – they’ve found a family that suits them, a family forged not by blood, but by experience. And I feel that’s very apt as well.
I can’t speak for everyone, but I’ve made some fantastic friends online over the course of this. We’ve all found solace in meeting each other online, lonely but together, just like the characters in The Shield Road. I really couldn’t have planned it better if I tried.
Last night, I was looking at my fantasy bookshelf and I noticed the book that got me through my early teens. Back then I dreamed of being an author, but authors and books were strange and mystical things – things that seemed detached from my life, unattainable. And last night, I slid a copy of my book onto the shelf beside it. My book’s not as big, and it sure as hell won’t be as impactful, but I don’t want those things anyway. The fact that I can simply do that, have my own book of my shelf, is so surreal that I probably won’t ever fully grasp the weight of it.
But I’m happy. And it brought me joy to create it.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. ❤
Dewi Hargreaves 