And it’s that wonderful time again, when a new book is heading for release! Book 1.5 of the Saint Flaherty series, All Roads Lead to Hell, is out for preorder on all platforms!

Good intentions only go so far.

Regretting his decision to let Simon Flaherty leave Buchell without admitting his feelings, Mick Perry follows his ex-fighting student to Scioto City looking for closure.

What Mick finds is a teenager barely coping with his new life, adrift in a metropolis that pays lip service to progress while accepting bribes from all-powerful criminal syndicates.

Mick thinks he’s prepared to do anything to help Simon, but his own past is catching up, from the family that betrayed his beliefs to the war he can’t seem to stop fighting in his dreams. Not to mention the contracts he’s bent on securing with the city bosses.

When the local syndicates realize exactly who Simon’s father was, all bets are off for the future. Mick will have to choose—does he want Simon as a lover, or does he want to use the power of the Petrowski name?

Or do all roads lead to hell?

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But what order should you read them in?

• The order of the series is as follows:
  What Boys Are Made Of
  The Mercy of Men
  All Roads Lead to Hell

The numbers just refer to their chronological order.

The fact is, when your series goes chronologically one way and story-wise another, it’s going to be a little confusing. There’s no way to get around that. (Well, okay, there is one way–don’t write a series that mixes that stuff up–but obviously that’s not going to happen with one that’s already written!) Someone’s going to read it in the wrong order at some point. In fact, more than one person will probably deliberately read it in the wrong order, just to see what’s what.

So let me put it this way.

If you read it chronologically, everything will make sense. Book 1.5 is perfectly understandable even if all you’ve read is 1. Heck, it might even be possible to parse it without reading any of the rest of the series at all, though I rather doubt that.

But the spoilers go 1, 2, 1.5. And 1.5 is not a bridge between 1 and 2, but a bridge between 2 and 3. It is background, it is a lead-up, it is what we, as readers, will be greatly helped by knowing. Not just about Simon and Mick, but about the entire world of Saint Flaherty, specifically how the syndicates of Scioto City function.

And that, my gentle readers, is why it’s in the order it’s in: it’s set-up. Which brings us to…

Why .5? What’s the point of a half book?

It’s a half book for several reasons. The first is that it’s literally half the length of the other books. 1 and 2 clock in around 100k each; All Roads Lead to Hell sits at a cool 52k, give or take some spare change.

The second is that this book is written differently. It’s from the point of view of Mick, and Mick alone.

And third, it’s not the main story of Saint Flaherty. This series asks us a question: can a teenager who’s killed for money save his own soul? Can he be a better man than what he was raised to be? Or will he fail, and fall?

The story of 1.5 is not necessary to that arc. It’s interesting, and it answers a lot of questions. It informs us of a few things we might otherwise not have noticed and foreshadows quite a bit. We find out things like how Simon got his Petrowski tattoo, and why he’s considered a neutral by the Scioto City syndicates. We even find out how his sister Ellie got her name.

But rather than this book being the story of Simon’s soul, it’s one about his relationships. Specifically, it explores the relationship between him and Mick Perry. No, it’s not a romance. Trust me, definitely not a romance. But it explores the hows and the whys and the why-there-should-not-bes.

I wrote it to give myself understanding about a rather strange event in my life, a blog post for another time. (Don’t give me that horrified look, it’s not tragic for me.) And in the process, I gave a depth to the Saint Flaherty series that we don’t get in those frantic snapshots of the main books.

I like this book. For all its uncomfortable subject matter, the things about it that make me so very nervous to put out there, I’m quite proud of it. It went down on the page almost perfectly formed, a story born of a lot of thoughts I’ve had for a long time.

And it’s a story done with a friend.

Sort of

Who the heck is Artemis Fay?

Let me first say this:

Coke-Cola and Lays potato chips are owned by the same company, but would you buy a Coke with Frito-Lay written all over the front? Probably not; it sounds like it’d be a potato chip flavored drink.

Well.

Author names are brands. Really, they’re nothing more, and far more of them than you know are just made up nom de plumes that sounded pretty to someone. They are associated with one type of story. If an author wants to write a different type, they switch names.

Artemis Fay is a writer of LGBTQ books, particularly romances, with a knack for the angsty bits of life. Seeing as of all the Saint Flaherty books, All Roads Lead to Hell is the one that’s actually an LGBTQ book, she helped me out a bit.

Seriously, don’t worry about it.

All Roads Lead to Hell will be out on September 6th, with preorders available now! Print copies will be made available day-of, using the same cover as the print version.

Order your copy today and have it on your e-reader the moment it comes out!

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And there’s lots more in the works. Book 3, new print covers for 1 and 2, a short story…

Keep an eye on this blog, there’s more to come including backstory, previews–stick around!