Michael Thorn's Blog, page 3
November 2, 2013
Day Two of NaNoWriMo: 7,745 words (11,462 total)
Ahh, I was so close to my goal tonight. Today was a productive day though with nearly 8,000 words! I got through the “intro story” now, and tomorrow I get into the heart of the tale. So far, everything is going according to plan. I see a NaNoWriMo win in my near future.
November 1, 2013
First day of NaNoWriMo: 3,717 words!
First day of NaNoWriMo went well. I got out 3,717 words. Not quite what I wanted to reach, but close enough, and it was a good stopping point. Considering my procrastination I think I did well. First 800 words or so felt pretty crappy, but I felt pretty good about the rest. By the end, I think I got into my groove.
NaNoWriMo 2013
Tonight I embark on my fourth year of NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month! My books have all been born out of this great challenge which is a good excuse to get your butt in gear and start writing! My first novel has been published, and now it’s time to write the next one. I’m going for a more personal challenge this time around to write ~70,000 words in 15 days! :O Oh boy! Everybody wish me luck! And good luck to all you fellow writers out there participating this month. If you’re interested in the challenge, check it out here:
October 28, 2013
House of Shadows Available Now!
The wait is finally over, and the book is here!
Book is available now on Amazon in print and for Kindle and on Barnes and Noble for Nook!
House of Shadows Print Edition
House of Shadows Kindle Edition
If you’re a Kindle user, Amazon is doing a MatchBook feature now. If you purchase the print version of the book, you get the Kindle version for free! That’s a great deal!
Check out the book today, and if you like it, be sure to tell your friends!
October 22, 2013
Relentless Ones Series Write-Up
The Relentless Ones series has its origins in the games of Dungeons & Dragons and other RPGs I played in my youth and the friends I made playing them. The Relentless Ones are a group of five friends who form a sort of dysfunctional family, and like family, they don’t always get along with each other, but they know that they can rely on each other when it’s them against the world.
The world of the Relentless Ones has more in common with Howard’s Hyboria or Lieber’s Newhon than Tolkien’s Middle Earth. The setting has a Mediterranean feel with the city-states of the classical era. The gods are present with an active hand in the world, bestowing favor and wrath in equal measure like the Greek gods of Olympus.
Humans are the predominant race, with the Faerie folk largely removed from the world, while rare individuals and small pockets of the lesser fae can still be found there. Monsters exist in dark forests, underground caves, distant mountain peaks, and more sinister, cosmic horrors lie buried deep in the earth, beneath the sea, or across the gulf of space.
Magic is rare, the study of which is carried out from master to apprentice or in secret abbeys. And there are darker paths to sorcery using forbidden knowledge gleaned from unspeakable entities. Sorcerers are inevitably dangerous, deranged, and horribly ancient.
The Relentless Ones books are not tales of epic, world-saving adventures or continent-spanning, decades long wars. They are tales of opportunistic professionals hoping to make a big score and spend their time in luxury…until the money runs out, and it’s on to the next job!
The books are self-contained and it’s not necessary to read them in order, although the characters do grow and develop over the course of the series. The plots between books are, for the most part, unrelated. The characters are down-to-earth, vulgar, and flawed. They have sex, they get drunk, they swear, they make mistakes. They are sometimes not nice people. But they are never sanitized fantasy tropes without any real substance.
If you enjoy fast-paced, fantasy stories with scheming, sword fights, magic, and monsters then you’ve come to the right place.
October 20, 2013
The Relentless Ones and the House of Shadows – Official Book Description
Right from the back cover:
“They’re not exactly the good guys…
The Relentless Ones are a dysfunctional family of outcasts and scoundrels, and the greatest professional adventurers in all of Tahlverden. Once they’ve accepted a contract, they’ll see it through to the end no matter what it takes.
They had a simple job, retrieve the Jewel of Alandraj from the Thirteen Towers of Ash, return it to the Temple of Burnt Embers in Cindanthia, and collect their reward.
But when they are trapped in a valley filled with phantoms, werewolves, and vampires by a devastating avalanche they are swept into a conflict between their mysterious benefactor, and the cruel ruler of the valley, the Voivode Lamech Gyhulha, who is in possession of the jewel they seek.
Unsure which of the valley’s strange denizens they can trust, they’ll have to fight their way through bitter cold, freezing wind, and the nightmares lurking in the shadows to get the jewel and escape with their lives!
A pulp fantasy tale of gothic horror and swords and sorcery that will leave you anxious to see what adventures lie on the next page.”
And if you’d like to read more you can check out the first chapter here: Chapter 1
House of Shadows available in 9 days!
The Relentless Ones and the House of Shadows comes out in 9 days on October 29th, 2013. We’ve got a little banner here from our Facebook page:
Information on the book and where you can buy are coming soon, so stay tuned! Also, if you haven’t already, please take the time to like us on Facebook!
And, if you can’t possibly wait 9 days, you can read the first chapter here for free!
Welcome to the site!
Hello and welcome! We’re just getting settled in here and still unpacking all the boxes so to speak. We’re getting ready for the release of House of Shadows in just 9 days! So, things are very busy and exciting here. Bear with us as we get everything in place, and we’ll have more news and announcements soon!
