NOW that JK Rowling has written the last Harry Potter and left the fantasy scene there is a vacancy. Could that be filled by new author MFW Curran and his debut novel out this week?
"If The Secret War did I'd jump for joy," says Sheffield writer Matt.
It's got demons, angels, vampires and knights fighting it out for thousands of years in a battle between the forces of good and evil, Heaven and Hell.
Instead of a schoolboy hero the central characters are Captain William Saxon and his pal Lieutenant Kieran Harte who have just survived the horrors of the Battle of Waterloo.
Could the initials be a hint to readers that he is offering up the same as JK Rowling or JR R Tolkein?
"I think the reason the publishers went with the initials is because the book is set in the 19th Century. They wanted an olde worlde feel and to give a sense of mystery about the author," says Matt.
Tomorrow evening he's launching the book with readings and "copious amounts of alcohol" at Waterstone's in Orchard Square but it may not be quite as riotous as his launch party last week.
He and a group of friends went to his local restaurant, Cipolla in Broomhill, to eat and drink to the book's success - and he got quite a surprise when they took off their jackets to reveal T-shirts promoting the book.
His wife Sarah had gone to considerable trouble and expense to get them printed. His says: "I'm a local writer."
Matt, aged 32, from Broomhill, explains: "I'd gone with some of them to a local bookshop to promote The Secret War and introduced myself as a local writer. They all fell about laughing."
Lest anyone accuse him of jumping on the Harry Potter bandwagon, Matt (or should that be M F W Curran?) started long before she had put down her first words.
"I have been writing it on and off for 15 years. It was one of those projects which refused to go away," says Matt, who finished his first novel at 18 and only just missed having it accepted by a major publisher.
By day he's a civil servant at the Department of Work and Pensions but he taps out 1,000 words in his 40 minute lunchbreak. "I can just switch off from the day job," he says.
Publishers Macmillan have put it out only in hardback at £12.99 to begin with and that's a hard market to crack. They'll be keeping an eye on its success before deciding on a paperback although there is already one for Ireland and the German rights have been snapped up.
His pals are helping. They're sending him photos of where the book has been spotted on bookshelves across Britain and Matt is doing his bit with his own blog (www.mfwcurran.com) which, for the last year, has kept readers posted on the novel's progress.
The Secret War is a different category to Harry Potter - historical fantasy - but he's hoping it will attract teenagers as well as adults.
He reckons he has a series of at least three and probably 12 to come and is already on the second draft of the follow-up.
That could mean an awful lot of celebration dinners at Cipolla.