Rick Rawes

It’s finally here, release day!

Honestly, it feels a little surreal, even after all this time. It took eight novels as an adult to finally make me feel confident enough to take a look back at my roots. To revisit Ricky, Sara and the characters who were my creative world as a teenager. I was just their age when I started writing about them, and now the adult looking back and their story is me.

I use the label ‘YA’ because that’s the one we use. But when we grew up in the world of slayers and hunters and the red-blue blur, we didn’t feel it was ‘YA’. They were stories of love and heartbreak and struggle that just resonated with us (plus cool vamps, of course). These novellas are a lot like that. They are horror stories and love stories. They are warning tales and morality plays. They are the turbulent seas of youth, growing up beside you.

And if you’re looking back as an adult? They’re the testimony to what we survived, and the scars of what it cost us. Proof that adulthood is about changing, not forgetting.

This collection brings together Episodes I to V of Year One, revised, polished and packaged together with both in-universe and behind-the-scenes bonus features. The eBook and paperback editions are both now ready to go (and I have to admit, they look fab).

I’d also like to add a gentle reminder – all of this I do myself. Every word I write, every cover I design, every bit of marketing and self-promotion. I probably spend more on each book than I ever make collectively from them all – and I don’t have global teams, or budgets, or algorithms behind me. But I have a passion to keep going, to show up authentically, and try to reach anyone who needs a little more story (or an escape) in their life. So, please, if you read and if you enjoy – a like, a share, a review, a rating, a post, a recommendation. Anything will help me to keep doing that.

You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, Amazon and GoodReads (along with this lovely website).

And finally, the story is not over. It has only just begun (you’ll get that later). Episode VI’s beta version is live now, with Episodes VII to XI dropping monthly throughout the rest of the year. Where Loyalty Lies: Year One · Volume II, colleting these six polished episodes, will be releasing 4th December 2026.

The end of the world may be coming, but until it does there’s so many more stories to tell.

’til the End

Rick Rawes
Leeds, West Yorkshire
29th May 2026