Taming your first feral cat.

Why a second edition?

Next month, a new, second edition of Oceanus will be released into the world. Going back over old ground wasn’t easy.

I like to think of writing your first novel as something like handling your first feral cat. You have good intentions, but you don’t know what will happen. Then you’re covered in scratches and bite marks, and it still won’t let you come close (in a way that doesn’t involve bloodshed). Sometimes it gets you right in the face, and you want to cry and abandon the project, but you keep coming back because on some level, you need to. Fast forward a few months and that cat is now calm and curled up in the basket under your desk. You don’t know how that happened, but you’re glad it did.

Maybe it’s because you kept filling that bowl, even if most of it ended up on the floor or worse… missing parts and on your duvet. Maybe it’s because you like to commit to things, even if you feel like you’ve bitten off more than you can chew.

For whatever reason, the cat calms down. They all do.

But then you get the chance to do a second edition. It’s been a couple of years, so you’ll have to try and think back to what handling a feral cat was like. You’ve only got domesticated ones now. They bite and scratch of course, but there’s only one first time.

It’s going to be a bit of a shock.

The second edition

When J. Curtis first suggested the possibility of editing for a second edition and a new release with Tiny Worlds Publishing, I was nervous. I wanted to do it, because I knew it wasn’t perfect (how could it be? It was my first pass at a novel!) but I also knew it would be full of expressions I would no longer use. I knew it would be hard to read, a bit like having to read your teenage diary, (I’ve never had to do that, but you get the idea of how cringey it might be).

The editing process was actually a good laugh. I’m not precious, and I’m forever grateful to have such a good working relationship with J the editor as well as J the writer. Growth should be a bit uncomfortable, but it doesn’t mean you can’t smile when you see how far you’ve come (even when those scratches sting).

A lot has changed in two years.

Two years is a long time to develop your skill when you write most days, and you learn on the job. I’ve published three other books since then. I’ve developed my voice. I am not the author I was in 2024.

I knew there would be the odd typo to clean up, or a passage that would benefit from some expansion. What I didn’t know was how much I’d have developed over those years. It was a pleasant surprise, especially when I strive to be objectively critical of my work.

Going back to who you were is really hard, but I’m proud of what I did.

So what’s the new version like?

This version is even better than the previous one. I will put my name to that, even if the first was already good.

Despite the minor errors, that book received really positive reviews. The story (which is still the same) is solid. The story has been preserved, because that’s what earned the reviews. The typos also earned some reviews, but they are gone now, so now people can just focus on the story when reviewing.

It is still written in British English. If you told me I’d never get another 1 or 2 star review again if I change to American English, I still wouldn’t. The grammar and the expressions of the (not even American) characters are integral. I believe there’s no better way to capture their spirit and the cultures they represent. Also, I’m British, so there’s that…

Preface to the second edition (2026)

In January 2024, an idea that had been burning in the back of my mind for years finally demanded existence. Recovering from burnout from another creative pursuit and adjusting to the arrival of my third child, I tapped away at the keys, wondering where this would take me. A few years before, Philip K Dick and Ridley Scott sparked that what if flame for me, only intensifying the fire with Blade Runner 2049 in 2017.

If I’ve learned anything from my love of science fiction, it is that the future is scary, and it is uncertain, but it is in that shapeless uncertainty where we can mould clay.

This was my first novel.

In my life I’d created plenty of scribbles, characters and plots, but never a novel. Luckily, it knew what it wanted to be, and what an adventure that was.

I’d never thought of chasing an agent, trying to land a publisher or fighting for shelf space in the local bookshop. I just wanted this story to exist.

I originally took this debut to Substack. There was a small but thriving fiction community there, and I am still grateful to have found a platform where I could simply put my words into a virtual bottle to drift across the platform. Others found them, and they waited for a weekly email that brought them more.

This new edition is still the same story as the one I published in September 2024, it just has all the refinement you’d expect for a book that has been revisited by an author who has improved since then. Careful polishing of areas that were a little rough around the edges, and some further insight into some characters.

As tempting as it was to go back and rewrite the entire book (because some sentences were hard to read), I wanted to preserve that original voice. I am still proud of who I was then, and what I had been able to produce from writing sessions that worked around baby nap times, school pickups and all the drama that comes with raising a young family in times of economic uncertainty and bizarre global politics.

This book will always be special to me. It is a story that still moves me to tears, no matter how many revisions I’ve read through, because it will always be about what it means to be human. Then, now, and always.

Oceanus will be available in June, 2026.

I can’t wait to show you this book.

Are you a subscriber? Stay tuned for the exclusive subscriber pre-sale.