How Harbinger Became the Beginning of the Sam Rourke Series
Steven Harrison explains how editorial feedback transformed Harbinger from a standalone psychological thriller into the beginning of the Sam Rourke series.
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Steven Harrison - Author
Debut author, releasing my first novel on 1st September 2026. After several rounds of editorial feedback and re-submissions to probably the best UK literary agency, I decided to give Self-Publishing a try first.
Only 12 weeks until my debut novel is released.![]()
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Strange how something that began as scattered thoughts, late nights, and quiet moments is now almost ready to belong to other people.![]()
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I keep wondering where it will be read first.![]()
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On a flight to somewhere new.![]()
On a sunbed under afternoon heat.![]()
Curled up on a sofa during a quiet evening.![]()
Or in a café while the world moves past the window.![]()
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That’s the beautiful thing about books, they travel further than their authors ever can.![]()
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Will my novel find its way to your bookshelf?![]()
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#TheHarbinger #DebutNovel #ThrillerBooks #PsychologicalThriller #SuspenseThriller #AuthorLife
I’m doing some reader research but I’d genuinely love to know this.![]()
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When you pick up a book by an author you’ve never read before, what usually makes you take the chance?![]()
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Is it the cover that catches your eye?![]()
The blurb that hooks you?![]()
A recommendation from someone you trust?![]()
The first page?![]()
Or does seeing the author’s posts and personality make a difference?![]()
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Vote A, B, C, D or E .. OR Anything else!![]()
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If you’ve got a minute, tell me why.![]()
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As a writer, I’m fascinated by that little moment where a reader thinks, “Go on then… I’ll give this one a try.”![]()
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Every reader has a clue they follow.![]()
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#Readers #BookLovers #CrimeFiction #Harbinger
Some killers want attention.![]()
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The Harbinger wants retribution.![]()
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For years, this story existed quietly in the background of my life — late nights, rewritten chapters, discarded scenes, and countless moments staring at a screen trying to understand the people inside it. What began as an idea slowly became something much darker: a psychological crime thriller built around obsession, manipulation, ritual, and the fragile line between truth and belief.![]()
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Harbinger: The Prophet’s Game follows Detective Sam Rourke as he investigates a series of murders connected by a single disturbing signature: a black feather left at every scene.![]()
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But the deeper the investigation goes, the clearer it becomes that this isn’t simply about catching a killer.![]()
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It’s about understanding one.![]()
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This trailer is the first real glimpse into the atmosphere of the novel — the tension, the isolation, the slow unraveling of something far larger beneath the surface.![]()
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No superheroes.![]()
No unstoppable action heroes.![]()
Just damaged people, hidden motives, and the consequences of the stories we choose to believe.![]()
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Release date: 1st September 2026.![]()
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The first body was only the message.![]()
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#Harbinger #CrimeThriller #PsychologicalThriller #NoirFiction #DebutAuthor #StevenHarrison #ThrillerBooks #WritingCommunity
Caffeine. Code. Crime.![]()
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Three things that fuel most of my time.![]()
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Problem solving has always been the key skill in my work career. Only when i started my novel did I realise just how useful that would be, devising plots and sub-plots.![]()
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What’s the strangest real-life skill you’ve seen carry over into creativity?
People sometimes ask what I do for a living.![]()
The honest answer is: it depends what time of day you catch me.![]()
By day, I work in IT infrastructure — managing servers, writing automation scripts, keeping enterprise systems running across multiple domains. It's methodical. Logical. Everything has a process.![]()
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By night, I plot murders.![]()
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Not the clean kind. The kind that unravel slowly. The kind where the reader thinks they know who did it, and they're wrong. The kind where the detective is smart, but the person he's chasing might be smarter.![]()
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For the last few years, these two lives ran in parallel. The day job funds the writing. The writing keeps the day job bearable. I rarely talk about one in the other. Most of my colleagues don't know. Most of the writing community doesn't know what I do from nine to five.![]()
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But the truth is, they feed each other more than I expected.![]()
The day job taught me systems thinking — how complex things connect, how small failures cascade, how people behave under pressure when something critical breaks at 2am. That's not a bad education for someone writing crime fiction.![]()
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And the writing taught me patience. The ability to sit with a problem that doesn't have an obvious answer and trust that the solution will come — eventually.![]()
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My debut thriller comes out this September.![]()
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For now — anyone else living a double life? What's the thing you do that nobody in your "other world" knows about?![]()
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#WritingCommunity #DebutAuthor #IndieAuthor #AuthorLife #CrimeFiction #AmWriting
The debut novel
Harbinger
The Prophet's Game begins the Sam Rourke thriller series.
Discover the book