I've been writing Maach for decades, though only in its current iteration since 2024. Until now, October 2026, I've not really done any updates or blogs about writing, as my focus was getting the main timeline down on paper. From now though, as I move from the main timeline of The Reign of Man trilogy into the individual Tales from Maach I feel like I can slow down (perhaps have to admit I need to slow down) a little and take more time.
So, as I slow down the pace of writing books, I can start taking some time to reflect and share my thoughts on the world I've been writing in.
Posted on October 25, 2026 by Richard Combes
Gosh (yes, I really do say that word out loud and not just when I type) - it's been nearly two weeks already. I have successfully finished another chapter. I realise I said that I'd slowed down, but I seem to have gone from two or three thousand words a day down to maybe one thousand a week. We'll say it's quality over quantity.
It's not that the story isn't there, but my "real job" has been very busy and the Reign of Man hasn't sold a million copies or been picked up by Netflix (other streaming services are available) yet, so I have to keep turning up at the start of the day. For anyone else who works in IT: you'll know what I mean by busy if I say the words "PHP exploit" (Translation: IT nightmare), given the news over the last week. That, and a worldwide Google-hosted services outage in the same week. WOW.
This week will be a very strange mix of activities. I'm introducing my son to The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, and Fight Club (we don't talk about Fight Club). We go for our annual all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet. Then I will be entirely abandoned by the family for a couple of nights, so I might be able to knuckle down and get on with the thing I enjoy most - telling stories.
Anyway. Chapter four is all wrapped up. Chapter five has a title and a skeleton. This week's soundtrack has been Paramore, Tally Spear, Avril Lavigne and Tina Arena. Yes - I'm that old.
As always, my email address and social links are on the main page. If you have any questions, something specific you want me to muse on, or any particular part of the world and history that you're curious about - let me know!
So long as you aren't trying to sell me something (buy my books), I'm always happy to hear from you.
Posted on October 12, 2026 by Richard Combes
I know, I know. I'm behind the curve. The Reign of Man was completed a month or two back. Three books in a little under two years. Given that writing is very much something I do alongside a full time job, I've spent evenings weekends, annual leave and a lot of time I should probably have spent sleeping on my laptop tapping away for hours at a time, I've been taking a hard-earned break from writing.
Instead, I've spent some of that time on my hobbies, and with family. I've done a little archery in the garden (with safety nets and targets!) and built a couple of tabletop wargaming armies. Anyone that knows the tabletop wargaming hobby will know the term 'pile of shame'. For those people, I'm proud to say one of the two armies is fully assembled and painted. The other... is a pile of shame.
I also rediscovered a love of open world survival games on my PC. Somewhere between Space Engineers 2, Dune: Awakening and Medieval Dynasty I seem to have lost about 100 hours of my life.
However, now that I've got 'being human' out of my system, I'm back at the keyboard working on what I think will be a pair of new books set in the Maach universe. These two books are focussed on a particular character from the trilogy, tracking their rise through society and what made them the person they became.
Because these are entirely new tales, rather than being a story that's been buzzing around my head for the last three decades, they're taking longer to write - so don't hold your breath for these two coming out this year.