The Iron Hunt follows the adventures of Maxine Kiss, a woman who is covered in living, breathing, demonic tattoos passed down from mother to daughter. Nomad and fighter, she exists in a world influenced by my obsessions with C. S. Lewis, Hans Christian Anderson, and Jorge Luis Borges. Orphans. Magic. Destiny. Labyrinths. An alien race that treats genetic manipulation like a divine art. Urban fantasy with its own dark mythology.

Over the next three months, Orbit will be releasing the entire Hunter Kiss series, starting with The Iron Hunt. To celebrate, I’ve been asked to do a series of video “Bookcasts” about the novels, and what it was like writing them.

Here, today, I’m kicking things off at the Great Wall of China Simatai, an old section of the wall that requires a bit of a climb to reach — though the view is certainly worth defying a fear of heights, sore muscles, and burning lungs! The Great Wall is also no respecter of acoustics, so please bear with me when the winds at the top compete with sound a little.

Friends and readers, I hope you enjoy the The Iron Hunt and the rest of the Hunter Kiss series.

Read an extract for The Iron Hunt here.