A RYEDALE author is celebrating having his first novel published and is already working on his next book.

Jack Colman, a former Ryedale School pupil, signed a deal with publisher HarperVoyager last year after submitting his debut novel, The Rule.

The 27-year-old had to endure a year-long wait after submitting his draft before he got the call to say that the book had been signed.

The book has now been released to buy for £1.99 as an e-book and the paper version is due in October.

He said: “I’m really happy it’s out there now. At the start I thought I might find it really hard to let go but to be honest by the time it came out I was more than ready to see the end of it.

“I didn’t realise how many final read-throughs I would end up doing. By now I could probably recite the whole thing by heart.”

Jack, who now lives in Poland with his wife, was inspired to write the Viking-esque fantasy novel after a comment made by one of his university lecturers who mentioned ancient European tribes that used to live in societies governed by one single law.

In a bid to escape revision, he began writing, despite never having liked English at school.

Speaking to the Gazette & Herald previously, he said: “There was no real grand scheme behind it, I just wanted to write the kind of story I’d like to read.

“Some people avoid revision by making a sandwich or cleaning their room; I went one step further and wrote an entire novel.

“Hopefully it’s just a good story with an original concept. My editor told me it was the battle scenes that first caught her eye but I like to think there’s something in there for everyone from dastardly plots to tender moments.

“At its heart it deals with the conflict between love and duty, law and morality.”

Despite securing a job as a lawyer in London for two years, Jack’s passion remained writing and he has hopes of writing full-time in the future. He said: “The plan now is to build on the first book and hopefully make some kind of long-term career out of writing. There will be another book with HarperVoyager at some point, which I’ve been writing while waiting for The Rule to come out and I’m hoping to turn that into short series. I still haven’t decided if it’s any good yet, mind.”

To order The Rule, visit amazon.co.uk/The-Rule-Jack-Colman-ebook

To find out more about Jack you can follow him on Twitter @_JackColman or on Facebook at facebook.com/jack.colman