#the fetch phillips archives

[hurdygurdywizard]

"Oh, what a lovely boy... You're not really going to shoot me, are you?"

The red light pulsed in his hand. Fumes sizzled up from the floor where acid and desert dust begged to be ignited. I looked into Hendricks' eyes and everything suddenly seemed so clear.

"Yeah, Eliah, I am. Unless you put that down. Carefully. Right now."

I was waiting for him to laugh at me. Or to drop the orb. Or to say that I was bluffing.

He didn't.

"Yes, boy. I believe you will."

[a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives]

Australian & New Zealand Author Showcase No 20 – Luke Arnold

February 9, 2024 by Charlie Cavendish

An idea squeezed into my head in 2023, after seeing so many of the book community gathering at conventions across the US and UK. And once my FOMO subsided, I got to thinking about who might be gathered together if we had similar conventions closer to home. Pending the master planning required to arrange a massive convention, I thought the next best thing might be to run an Australian & New Zealand author showcase. So, I sent out the call, with the only prerequisite for participating being the author had to have been born in either country or currently live there.

Its now 2024 and the Aussie / New Zealand Author Showcase is gathering steam again. Just when I thought it was over even more talent has emerged, at this rate its threatening to become year long event! I will continue to post their individual showcases at regular intervals. So hopefully you will enjoy these interactions with some very talented people. Please be sure to check out their work, sign up to their newsletters and follow them on their social media of choice. I make no apologies for any damage inflicted to your TBR’s!

Showcase No 20 finds me chatting with very talented Luke Arnold. Luke is the award-winning actor from projects such as Black Sails, Glitch and Never Tear Us Apart: The Untold Story of INXS as well as the author of The Fetch Phillips Archives; a series of fantastical detective stories which has third instalments to date.

Do you feel that being an Aussie / Kiwi (or residing there) influences your writing?

Absolutely. I didn’t leave Australia until I was in my twenties so, for better or worse, I was brought up with a distinctly Australian outlook. It’s something that can be easily mischaracterised and also requires some distance to properly understand. Being both a young and old country, we’re still finding ourselves, experiencing growing pains, and struggling with our identity.

At the same time, isolation and an abundance of natural resources means a lot of us are able to benefit from a high quality of life without working as hard as we’d need to in many other places in the world. I think a lot of Aussies know this in their bones, and it makes us nervous of “rocking the boat” for fear that we might lose the advantages we have.

This aversion to change has some embarrassing repercussions on relationships between European Australians and Australia’s First Nations People, as well as our treatment of immigrants and asylum seekers.

We have a different kind of national identity to other western countries like the USA or Britain. We’re still trying to play the underdog – the little colony down under that punches above its weight – but that persona no longer fits us the way it used to. These themes seep into all my work.

Fetch Phillips may have the outward appearance of a classic American hard-boiled hero, but he has an Australian heart. He’s someone who feels separate, a bit ignorant, reticent to become a leader, and happy to defer to those he sees as being older and more experienced. He values being humble and self-effacing, but there is safety in that identity.

It allows him to shirk responsibility and hide in the shadows, even when it should be his moment to step forward. He’s a man who didn’t grow up when he was supposed to and is struggling to come of age too late. I feel like Australia is going through the same thing.

What are some of the challenges being located so far away from the rest of the world, do have any tips for overcoming these?

When I was first trying to get published, I was lucky in that I was already working overseas and had some profile from my acting career. That’s a clear advantage I don’t take lightly. Though I’d always wanted to write, the thing that pushed me to finish my first manuscript was a desire to spend more time at home. My acting career was reaching a point where every job was in a different city, and I wanted to know that I could keep working creatively without needing to get on a plane. There are numerous advantages to being creative in Australia.

One thing that is easily overlooked is that we have more safety nets that some other countries. I really notice this when I’m in the US. It’s terrifying to have no money in America. Of course, cost of living is going up everywhere, but I still think there are more ways to find a balanced life in Australia where you can keep a roof over your head and be creative at the same time. Yes, it’s a smaller market and it can be hard to break out overseas, but if the goal is to live a creative life where you do the thing you love without panicking that someone’s going to kick you out on the street, this is one of the best places in the world to establish yourself.

Personally, I know I couldn’t have survived as a young actor long enough to build my career without the support systems that Australia offers.

3. How do you go about establishing connections in the book community? (any tips / suggestions)

I’m terrible at this. My first two novels came out in 2020 when we were all locked inside, and I’ve only met a handful of other authors in person. So of course, social media is a huge asset.

I mostly rely on creatives I’ve known for a long time. Every couple of weeks, I catch up with an author friend, Steven Lochran, I’ve known since high school, and we read each other’s stuff and discuss what we’re working on. I have a number of other people, some writers some not, who I use as beta readers when they have the time.

Finding your own colleagues that you trust and feel comfortable to share your work with is more important than trying to network your way onto tables with notable people in the industry. If you do good work, then that will happen naturally.

4. Do you have a favourite character to write? And conversely are there any of your characters that are the more of a struggle?

Fetch is fun because he still surprises me. There’s a lot of me in him, and he’s dumb enough that I can stuff my own fears and ideas into his head and have him try and make sense of things. It’s always harder when I have to write someone more intelligent – someone who might have the answers he seeks – because then I need to get ahead of my own pondering and come to some conclusions. Perhaps that’s why everyone is fallible in my world, and even those who seem to have the answers will likely fall to pieces before the end of the story.

5. So aliens finally reveal themselves to us and your work is presented to them as example of what humanity has to offer, what do you hope they will take away from this intergalactic exchange?

I hope they’d see that we’re flawed, confused, vulnerable little things, and yet we keep trying to be better. Individually and collectively. My books are noir in tone, but the point isn’t to say that we’re all broken and corrupt. It’s about celebrating the way we keep trying to be good, even in the face of terrible darkness. Even when we’ve made mistakes that should he unforgivable. Even when the pressure – both without and within – feels like it’s going to crush us. Hopefully, if they’re looking at the state of things right now, it might help them see that we’re not completely lost.

6. Tell us something about yourself that not many people know?

In this relentlessly online world, it’s hard to think of something that isn’t already out there. So I’m trying to think of something obscure. Maybe I’ll share that I play a bit of Beat Saber in VR and I’m determined get to the top of the leader board for Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever (normal difficulty). I’m broken the top 100 but I’m gunning for a top ten spot.

What would you say is the best thing about being an author and the worst?

The best thing is that your work is all yours. There are very few creative endeavours out there where you can give so much of your internal world to another person. While our editors and publishers are integral, it’s not the same collaboration as making a film or playing a song with a band. This is all you.

The worst thing is that your work is all yours. You can get feedback and guidance, but it’s only your name on the cover. You must write every word, alone, without anyone encouraging you or sharing the load. Every time I write a book, I’m struck by what a monumental act of faith it is. One word after the other, day after day, for months, hoping that by the end it will be at all interesting to anyone else. Some days I can’t write a text to someone without crumbling under self-doubt, but then I have to find the motivation to pump out a few thousand words of fiction.

And at the end of it all, when someone else enjoys the finished product, they will also be alone, somewhere far away, playing out the story in their own head, and you’ll be completely oblivious to how it’s making them feel. It requires a level of self-belief that is easier to summon some days more than others.

8. Any other Aussie / Kiwi creatives you’d like to give a shout out for? (let’s spread the love)

I’m embarrassed to say that my reading really dropped off over the last year, but if you want some more noir, this time with a sci-fi twist, the 36 Streets by T.R.Napper’s is a fantastic cyberpunk story set in future Vietnam.

And I finally jumped into Maria Lewis’s The Rose Daughter and am bloody loving it.

9. What’s your favourite quote or passage from one of your books?

Shit. The ones I love one day, I cringe at the next. The chapters about Fetch’s love interest, Amari, in The Last Smile in Sunder City still hold a special place for me though. They were the first pieces I felt confident sharing with other people.

There’s a part where Fetch just lists the days they spent together. As the series continues, I have to keep returning to it to make sure that if I allude to an encounter between Fetch and Amari, it’s related to one of the occasions included in that list. It’s simple, and Fetch doesn’t include much emotion or embellishment, but every time I go back to it, that tragic romantic melancholy gets back under my skin.

9. What’s your favourite quote or passage from one of your books?

Shit. The ones I love one day, I cringe at the next. The chapters about Fetch’s love interest, Amari, in The Last Smile in Sunder City still hold a special place for me though. They were the first pieces I felt confident sharing with other people.

There’s a part where Fetch just lists the days they spent together. As the series continues, I have to keep returning to it to make sure that if I allude to an encounter between Fetch and Amari, it’s related to one of the occasions included in that list. It’s simple, and Fetch doesn’t include much emotion or embellishment, but every time I go back to it, that tragic romantic melancholy gets back under my skin.

10. What can you say about your current project or what you are planning next?

The fourth instalment of The Fetch Phillips Archives is in the editing phase, and I’m really excited to get it in people’s hands. I’ve enjoyed the fact that Fetch has not yet lived up to being either a hard-boiled detective or a fantasy hero. His guilt, self-doubt, and insecurity have taken his investigations (and in some cases the plot of the books) off the rails. That was always intentional, and I found that journey interesting to write, but Book 4 is a different beast. Fetch is still a problematic guy, but he’s put himself together enough to tackle his next case with more determination. So, for the first time, we have a more focused narrative revolving around a single string of murders. There are a lot of rewarding moments in this one for readers who were hoping Fetch might eventually catch a break.

But it’s still noir, so don’t except all sunshine and roses. Just a mystery where the main character isn’t getting in his own way quite so much.

Bonus Question:  Lastly Vegemite* yes or no?

Absolutely. Thin layer with plenty of butter. It’s not something I crave when I’m away from home but get me back in the Aussie bush and I’ll be searching for a jar in no time.

* An iconic dark salty spread that (most) Australians slap on toast for breakfast (NB explanation for the rest of the world)

Author Bio:

Luke Arnold was born in Australia and has spent the last decade acting his way around the world, playing iconic roles such as Long John Silver in the Emmy-winning Black Sails, Martin Scarsden in the screen adaptation of Chris Hammer’s Scrublands, and his award-winning turn as Michael Hutchence in the INXS mini-series Never Tear Us Apart. When he isn’t performing, Luke is a screenwriter, director and novelist.

He has published three books in The Fetch Phillips Archives, with the fourth instalment on the way. He performs the audiobooks for all his works, and The Last Smile in Sunder City was nominated for Best Fantasy at the 2021 Audie Awards.

Book/ Series Links

Social Media Links

@longlukearnold on Insta, X, and TikTok

Source: FanFi Addict

[scififantasies]

This just in: Fetch Phillips earns “good boy” from third grown man— a werewolf leather daddy.

[somfte]

Can't stop thinking about how quickly the noir genre homage breaks down in the fetch phillips books.

We talk a lot about how pathetic Fetch is and that feels like something unique about him relative to the noir genre as a whole but it's really not.

Philip Marlowe is actually also super pathetic (alone, sad about it but doesn't feel like he actually deserves better, but also so jaded he thinks he's one of the only people left in the world who cares about what's right, loves to take a punch instead of anything easier, etc) he just... Gets shined up again because every book (with at least one very notable exception) resets back to the beginning so that they can be serialized. Each Marlowe book is solidly *noir* and follows the predictable plot formula.

The Last Smile In Sunder City is really the only properly noir-like book in the archives, after that they kind of take off and start doing their own thing.

Fetch has to face consequences and worldbuilding in a way Marlowe never does, so the inherent sad sack nature of the noir private investigator becomes crystal clear. Fetch unavoidably makes connections to other characters, his backstory is critically tied to the worldbuilding, and everything he does has some impact. He's much more Vimes-like in this way, and early Vimes is *also* a deeply pathetic person.

I was originally trying to meander my way toward a point but I lost the thread.

I guess tl;dr Fetch has to be so pathetic because that's what happens when you look at noir too closely. And that's neat to me.

[somfte]

[transcription: My boy; darling; my boy; The Human spy who used me. The piece of pure evil I mistook for a good man. The traitor; Fetch; Don't be jealous, boy; boy?; Mr Man for Hire; boy; Master Fetch; boy; Oh what a lovely boy; Fetch Phillips; my boy; what are? You're nothing; Oh, my boy; My boy; Ohhhh, what a lovely boy is Fetch!; boy; Mr Man for Hire; This is good, boy; My dear boy; boy; Fetch, my boy! /end transcription]

non exhaustive compilation of names hendricks calls fetch in dead man in a ditch.

[tiofrean]

Hey Sunder City fans! Hey Fetch Phillips enthusiasts! Let's do a thing!

Info from the poster beneath. The deadline is 6th of April 2025. If you have any questions, @ me :)

We also kinda wanna put it together as a pdf and post it around the publishing of Whisper in the Wind so that Luke may actually see it and hopefully smile while being smothered by the outpouring of love for his creation.

Please, reblog to spread it?

The full rules concerning the wide definition of fanart uploaded are here: [link to a pdf on google disk]

To all magical and non-magical creatures!

To celebrate the publishing of Whisper in the Wind on 29th of April, we’d like to invite you to create a fanbook with us. We aim to gather every expression of fan love and smash it into one giant pdf. How big it’s gonna be only depends on you!

The deadline is 6th of April 2025.

What can you submit? Well, the official prompt is a scene or a character from the Sunder City Verse. What can it be? A drawing, a painting, a photo of a cosplay, a poem, a fic, song lyrics, a statue, a chocolate figurine, a wood-carved piece… The possibilities are endless and we are excited for them all!

Don’t have an idea of what to create? No worries! Write a short - or long - comment on the books. Maybe you love one of the characters? Or one of the places in Sunder is exactly like your favorite restaurant in real life? Maybe you have some feelings concerning a specific magical creature? Or maybe you want to share your excitement about the new book? We will be happy to include all comments (keep them PG13, though).

The requirements are: - the maximum of an A4 page per participant - the deadline is 6th of April 2025 - the submissions should go to fetchfromsunder@gmail.com

In case of questions, don’t hesitate to send me an email or @me at socials!

[incorrectfantasyquotes]

Fetch, probably: Don't get me wrong I'm all for feral girl fall but recently I've been having a rock bottom autumn

[a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives]

From Lynette Noni's post:

I’m finally beginning to catch up on everything from the last few weeks, so here’s some fun pics from @supanovaexpo Gold Coast and Melbourne last month! I had the best time hanging with amazing authors @freyamarske, @trnapper, @longlukearnold, @say_shannon, and @gracechanwrites (plus @jameslindsayauthor and @marclindsayauthor) over the two weekends! And it was beyond incredible to see so many readers and talk about books! 😍

Huge thanks as always to the phenomenal Supanova staff and volunteers who go over and above to make the event/s magical (especially the literary manager @pagsbelfield, and of course the fab PAs like Teela and Kyle (among others!) who took such great care of us all). I wish I could thank everyone involved in making the event/s so special, but instead, I’ll just say I adore you all - and of course a MASSIVE thank you to all the readers who came out to see me/us! All the feels!! ❤️

Bonus from her instagram stories:

[somfte]

[image description copied from alt text:

first image: painting of a woman on a gray background. she is sitting sideways on a chair, wearing a sheer black robe with a hood. she has whiskey colored skin and various piercings and jewelry.

second image: painting of a woman on a gray background. she is sitting sideways on a chair. she is bald, has whiskey colored skin and various piercings and jewelry, including wrist and leg cuffs, many necklaces, and silver chains and belts.

/end description]

Khay, colored vers.

[lichfucker]

[image description expanded from alt text: two versions of the same digital drawing of Hendricks from the Fetch Phillips Archives, one in color and one greyscale. Hendricks is a thin, pale elf with long curly ginger hair, a mustache, and a goatee. he's wearing a white button-down and an extravagant floor-length blue ruffled skirt. the skirt has ribbon-like straps that wrap around his shoulders and all down his arms to his hands. he's posed standing with his head tilted and his eyes closed against a two-toned beige background. the drawing is done with flat colors and messy black line art. end id]

drawing hendricks in clothes I saw on pinterest*: 6/?

[scififantasies]

Fetch Phillips who punches his way out of uncomfortable situations calls Simms “impolite” for too much eye contact with Eileen.

[etoilesombre]

Fic Master List

I got tired of having to decide which fic post to keep pinned, so I made this. Proper summaries, tags and warnings all on AO3.

Black Sails

Another Way - Silverflint, E, 29,399 words, complete.

Dubcon! But in a very old-school fanfic trope fuck or die way. It diverges from the scene where they get captured taking the warship. They do work through everything in the aftermath, and the end is very sweet actually.

By Faith of my Body - Silverflintmadi in various combinations, but emphasis on the flintmadi relationship. E, Chapter 1/4 posted.

Flint and Madi bond over books, the weight of leadership, and being in love with John Silver. FealtySub!Flint, shameless use of literature for my own nefarious purposes, and so much pining.

Another Troy to Burn - Series. Silverflint longfic series, my special precious baby and literally the first thing I ever wrote. It's canon where they're fucking the whole time but it doesn't change anything. There is a moodboard (thanks @jaynovz) and also a playlist.

A Composite Unity - E, 20,366 words, complete. The first two seasons, Flint pov. He is not having a great time.

The Salt and the Sea - E, 60,495 words, complete. Set during the season 2-3 break, how Silver decided to stay and what happened with the gold. He is also not having a great time.

It Only Made Me Real- E, chapters 4/? posted. Silver adjusting to his role as quartermaster, Flint being Flint during the raids. I swear upon everything holy that I WILL finish this series if its the last thing I do, but, it has been on hiatus for a while.

for to fight the cold - Silverflint, E, 11,283 words, complete. Flint arrives to rescue Silver while he is still being held captive on the beach after the failed attack on Nassau. The cathartic murder of Israel Hands, followed by angst, caretaking, and a sexual tension filled camping trip.

If It Was You - Silverflint, E, 17,430 words, complete. Free use gangbang porn that got out of control and also grew a lot of feelings. The boys spend the night in port on a mission. There is only one bed. Flint freaks out and makes questionable choices, Silver walks in on the whole thing, they have to work through it. Cathartic happy ending. The very Most dirty talk.

I'll Carry You Home Tonight - Silverflint, E, 6,604 words, complete. This one is just porn. Season 3-4 break, the guys are newly in a relationship, they get Pirate Date Night. It's working title was 'impact play and 5 phases of ass stuff'.

Kinkmeme-Verse - Series of prompt fills for 2024 Black Sails kinkmeme. I wrote the first two, saw the prompt for the third, and had a Vision of how they could all be connected, so here we are.

As a Boy - James Flint|McGraw/Admiral Hennessey, E, 5,121 words, complete. Young James McGraw is caught with a boy, and punished. Big content warning for CSA, which I tried to treat seriously.

Pressure - Silverflint, E, 4,504 words, complete. More watersports are we all shocked? This is kind of the ultimate expression of that, but really its an exploration of pain and grief and healing through BDSM.

Make Sail for the Dawn - Silverflint, E, 12,504 words, complete. Flint uses submission as catharsis amidst his grief and pain over Miranda, but Silver accidentally reminds him of past history, which he then has to confront. They work through it, because Silver really has to do everything on this ship, including being his captain's therapist. Also Flint gets fucked with his pistol. Just by the way. This is the one prompter hated! Go see for yourself if it is, in fact, Too Awful For Kinkmeme XD.

long as amber of ember glows - Silverflint, E, 7,933 words, complete. If 3.10 ended the way it should have. There are love confessions, and they fuck on the gold. No literally, on it. It's very sweet honestly.

Our Feast is But Beginning - Series. Silverflint Cookingverse! Flint teaches Silver to cook.

Spit-Roasted - M, 5,821 words, complete. The one where Flint shows Silver how to roast a pig. It's canon! Flint is very weird about sex.

Gentille Alouette - E, 11,618 words, complete. Late night cooking dates on the Walrus, continuing intense sexual tension, Flint is basically edging himself. He sure is a way.

Princes of the New World - E, 38,145 words, complete. This one got a little out of hand, it has many things in it, including lots of hurt comfort and caretaking, the guys finally getting together and also not hiding their relationship, some intense gender vibes (Silver gets to be a pampered pretty princess) and yes, even some cooking.

Our Shadows That Are Bold - Silverflint, E, 4,912 words, complete. Dom Silver. The first little iteration of fealty sub Flint, he sure has some feelings about Silver coming into his own as king.

So We Begin - Silverflint, E, 4,038 words, complete. 3.7 missing scene fic that is exactly what you would expect after stomp stomp and the "how good it feels" conversation.

The Soft Animal of Your Body - Silverflint, E, 3,398 words, complete. The watersports one. Yep sure is, omorashi style, with a good side of hurt comfort stuff and also Flint telling a weird dirty story. Set during warship recovery time. This is basically an outtake of longfic because it doesn't quite work there but wouldn't leave my brain.

the sound that you found for me - T, background silverflintmadi, but its really about Silver and Betsy the cat. Yep. 5,699 words, complete. Kittenfic!! Written for the Beach Blanket Black Sails Ficfest, the prompt was 'Betsy has kittens and Silver wants to keep them on Maroon Island.' It's really about Silver and trauma and there are sad parts but nothing bad happens to any cats and there is a happy ending.

stitched with its color - G, silverflintmadi sort of, 1,344 words, complete. The conversation where Madi tells Flint that Silver is alive.

Such Terrible Hungers - E, Flintvane, 3,357 words, complete. Instead of fuck buddies, they're fuck enemies. Fight sex and Flint angst, that's basically the fic.

to pull me from myself again - E, Silverflint, 7,419 words, complete. Written in response to a Tumblr prompt asking for s1 dynamics softe silverflint, Silver's first time with a man. That is indeed it, that's the fic

What Lies Beneath - E, Silverflint, 3 chapters, complete. 11,031 words. Demon Flint AU! Basically make the demon in Flint literal. Silver is fascinated of course.

The Fetch Phillips Archives (aka Luke Arnold's books, go read them!)

announcing your place in the family of things - E, Fetch/Satyr, 6,865 words, complete. The first creature Fetch meets when he leaves the human city is that unnamed Satyr, and that feels like a conscious choice to me. Coulda said 'faun' and we wouldn't be here Luke. Anyway monsterfucking, but in a lovely way.

The Exorcist (tv)

The Smoke of Their Torment - M, Marcus/Tomas, 572 words, complete. A snippet of Marcus angst and pining and also jerking off in a shared hotel room there may be more someday.

The X-Files

The current think I'm (re)weird about is Mulder and Krycek. Yes, I know everyone else got over it in the early 2000's. But NOT ME apparently. Here, have a playlist (it's really for the Chechnya fic but it generalizes)

Whatever You Can Still Betray - E, Mulder/Krycek, Chapter 2/? posted. Set in vague early season five, sometime between Redux and Patient X. Mulder chases a case across the world to a secret Russian facility in Chechnya, and right into the hands of Alex Krycek. Krycek has problems of his own, but believes his interests and Mulder's might be aligned. When disaster strikes, they have to rely on each other to survive.

like the western front - Series. Mulder/Krycek skipping the holidays, a temporary truce that gets to be more complicated.

as common as it is unkind - E, 12,570 words, complete. Set after The Red and the Black. Thinking Mulder is out of town, Krycek breaks into his apartment on Christmas in search of information. Mulder is not, in fact, out of town.

just glad to get to be around - E, 12,226 words, 3/4 chapters posted. Krycek doesn't really think Mulder is going to accept his invitation for New Year's Eve. Mulder does, but things go sideways, and they end up having to do Russian New Year's together at a fancy villain party under duress. Cocaine, caviar and fucking in the men's room.

[somfte]

[image description: a picture of text from a book that reads:

Mostly, these historical legends come in pairs. Nothing allows a man to flourish quite like an adversary of equal strength. On their own, some of these figures might never have been noticed, but face them off against each other in bloody conflict and both names get drilled into the record book. A good man is made through a lifetime of work. Great men are made by their monsters.

/end description]

Finally reading the Fetch Phillips books by one Mr. Luke Arnold. Definitely enjoying it and staying up late to read "just one more chapter." Ears always be perking up at mentions of monsters 👀

[erodingsinner]

BLACK SAILS x THE LAST SMILE IN SUNDER CITY BY LUKE ARNOLD.

[hadescavedish]

Me standing in between dashboards of Tumblr with a rainbow flag in my hand yelling "read Fetch Phillips Archives"

[rion-writes]

okay I do take minor gumption at calling Fetch a detective. Man's legwork in two solid books was "let myself get hit enough until I'm dropped at the crime scene".