I’m hosting guest authors through most of April and May, as I am swamped with Awesome Con DC and welcoming Baby Boy Brightley into the world. This guest post was written by Mike Reeves-McMillan, the author of Realmgolds, Hope and the Clever Man, and Hope and the Patient Man. How to be Optimistic Dystopian fiction is in at the moment, as is the closely related genre of post-apocalyptic. Everywhere you look (especially in the YA market) you see people struggling in a world where things have gone substantially more wrong than usual. I could talk about sociological reasons why this might be so, […]
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It’s done! Things Unseen (A Long-Forgotten Song) is out! Things Unseen is the first book in my new dark, urban, Christian fantasy series. You can read an excerpt here, as well as find purchase links for ebooks and paperbacks. I’d also VERY much appreciate any reviews of Things Unseen if you have a chance! Check out the fantastic cover art! I love it! I even had the full digital painting made into posters in preparation for Awesome Con DC this weekend. I’m thrilled with the cover designer and look forward to working with him on the rest of the books in […]
I’m hosting guest authors through most of April and May, as I am swamped with Awesome Con DC and welcoming Baby Boy Brightley into the world. This guest post was written by A.J. Maguire, the author of Sedition, Saboteur, and Witch-born. World-Building and Sequels It seems easy enough to start a series. You finish one book and then, oftentimes because you’ve fallen in love with particular characters or the world you’ve built, you realize there’s more. There’s more story to be told here, more adventures to be had, and you get excited to continue. Readers are excited with you because, just like you, […]
I’m hosting guest authors through most of April and May, as I am swamped with Awesome Con DC and welcoming Baby Boy Brightley into the world. This guest post was written by Ben Blake, the author of Blood and Gold (Songs of Sorrow), The Gate of Angels (Songs of Sorrow), The Risen King, and A Brand of Fire (TROY). World-Building and Authenticity There’s an old quote about building characters, which Stephen King attributes to Thomas Hardy. I don’t know myself, but it goes; “Compared to the dullest human being walking on the earth, the most brilliantly drawn character in any novel […]
I finally have a title! The completed almost-final draft is off to one of my beta readers/my editor right now and I should have it back by the end of the week. I’m on track to publish it by Awesome Con DC in April. AND I should have a cover to reveal soon! Here’s a snippet from the near the beginning: The summer I turned twelve, my friend Tirta, his cousin Dathlo, and I were given the second significant test. Otso-ka decreed that we would steal wolf cubs. They would be raised until they were nearly adults and then killed […]
I wrote this post over a month ago, and I’ve only just now gotten up the courage to publish it. What’s different now? Well… Things Unseen, the first book in the A Long-Forgotten Song series is almost done (I’m working on the final copy edits and formatting), and the third book in Erdemen Honor (which still needs a title) is not done but is still POSSIBLY on track to be published by Awesome Con DC in April. Basically, I was so discouraged that I didn’t even want to admit how discouraged I was. Sad, right? My sales are still excruciatingly […]
In addition to fantasy, one of the genres I come back to again and again is historical fiction. I also read a lot of international fiction. I love great characters, but I also love that sense of the exotic, something new and different than everyday modern life. Historical periods are wonderful to explore in books… maybe I wouldn’t want to live in revolutionary France, but it makes a great setting for dramatic stories! These are a few of my favorite historical periods: England 1000-1400s The Brothers of Gwynedd Quartet: Comprising Sunrise in the West, the Dragon at Noonday, the Hounds […]
If you’re considering self-publishing, you’ve probably been doing some research about how to avoid the various scams and predatory “services” and vanity presses out there fighting for your attention and money. It’s a rough world… there are a lot of people and businesses who are eager to take advantage of authors. Before you give any money to anyone for any service, please check out the following links as appropriate: Preditors and Editors Writer Beware, and here’s the page on vanity presses and scam warning signs, along with an extensive list of other places to check out any publishing house you […]
No, this isn’t going to be a blog post about all the wonderful things I would do with a billion dollars… travel the world, devote tons of money to various worthwhile charities (some personal favorites are Gospel for Asia and WorldVision, but there are others I would support too), pay off our mortgage (buy a new house) and grad school loans, and all the other standard things most people would do. This is a “what would I do differently in my writing life if money wasn’t an issue” blog post. All those things I listed above are great, but this […]
Kemen relates this scene from his point of view in A Cold Wind, and I thought it would be fun to tell it from Riona’s point of view… they have very different perspectives. If you have the paperback version, the scene starts on page 99 with I left the main company far behind… SPOILER WARNING: This is a scene close to the middle of the second book. There aren’t huge spoilers in here, but there are some pretty big clues, so if you don’t want anything spoiled, don’t read any further! *** Kemen arrived back from Rikuto in the middle […]