Frank Dorrian's Blog, page 4

Scars of the Sand – it’s release day!

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Ok, so the day’s finally here! Scars of the Sand is out at last! You can grab a copy here.

And about time too! I’ve been way, way, way behind schedule on this one, so I apologise for anyone who’s known of its existence and been waiting for it to drop, but yeah it’s finally here.

A short tale about Harlin from The Shadow of the High King, reactions so far have been universally positive, so thank you everyone who has taken the time to read it, talk about it or just offer me a gentle nudge of encouragement to get the fucker done – its appreciated. I’m looking forward to seeing the wider reaction to it, so anyone who reads it please let me know your thoughts!

After 6 months of writing and editing and redrafting and wrestling with the cover, its out – and I can finally focus on my next work – book two of The Weaving Shadows Trilogy, another one long, long overdue, who’s title I can finally reveal as I’ve settled upon it at last – In His Darkened Halls. Hopefully, this will be dropping in 2018, or early 2019.

 

 

 

Book Review – Darkstorm by M. L. Spencer

 

So I finally got to finish Darkstorm by M. L. Spencer today (only took me 2 months thanks to work and my own writing).

Darkstorm for me has a bit of a special place on my shelf as it is not only very, very good, it is also the first full length kindle book I’ve read and it’s by a self published author.

M. L. Spencer’s first installment of the Rhenwars Saga has really impressed me for a number of reasons.

First and foremost is obviously the quality of her writing, she’s accomplished, professional and has a knack for character voices – I particularly enjoyed Quin.

Her world building is also something to be admired, it’s multifaceted, rich and complex, with a depth any other writer would be sure to nod appreciatively of as they read. Of particular note is her Tolkien-esque attention to detail when it comes to scenery, her descriptions of her characters’ various surroundings are vivid and clear but never feel overblown or forced, and on the whole she manages to give everything in the book an impression of scope and grandeur. I was also fond of her penchant for skilled and elaborate descriptions of magic use throughout the book, something lacking from a lot of the books I’ve read the last few years.

Spencer’s plotweaving is also something to be commented on, as while her writing style most certainly has a foot planted firmly in high fantasy, she blends it seamlessly with characters and themes that could only come from a grimdark tome for their profound levels of assholery.

I was left with a ton of questions after reading Darkstorm, and I’ll be grabbing Darkmage asap to follow this up with, the sure sign of a solid series debut. I’m very much looking forward to seeing how Spencer’s writing and world develop over this series, as all the signs from this starting point are definitely full of promise.

5/5

The April Book Cover of the Month Bracket Begins!

Matthew Leistikow’s book cover contest is running again!

M.L.S. Weech

Happy first everyone! It’s time to kick off a new bracket.  If you’re curios or new, check out the Book Covers for December, January, February, and March.

April’s bracket has 30 new covers.  Age of Myth is fighting more than I’ve ever seen a cover fight. Michael J. Sullivan finished with the top most votes in the semifinals, which earned him yet another shot in this month’s bracket. Frank Dorrian’s To Brave the End was last month’s runner up, so he gets another crack at the bracket as well.

As always, I’d appreciate it if you tag the authors and artists if you know them. I try to tag or friend every author I can, but sometimes it’s hard to track someone down. Max participation is a huge deal to me. The more people who vote, the more recognition these authors and artists receive, and I…

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Announcing the March Book Cover of the Month!

To Brave the End came runner up, well done Steen Jones, and thanks again to Matthew Leistikow for the opportunity – I’m looking forward to next month’s contest!

The March Book Cover of the Month Bracket Begins!

M.L.S. Weech

The dawn of a new month has become a bit of a present for me. It means I get to kick off a new bracket.  If you’re curios or new, check out the Book Covers for December, January, and February. 

I’m happy to say February was pretty darn successful. It only came a few hundred away from breaking a record! This month has 31 outstanding new covers and Age of Myth has another chance to seize the day! I’ve been tracking this set of books for a while, and I honestly think it’s the strongest so far. Look, I know I might say that every month, but isn’t that the point?

If you know the authors or the artists, please share this and tag them. I try to tag or friend every author I can, but sometimes it’s hard to track someone down. Max participation is…

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Forsaken by Eric S. Fomley

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So I’ve been meaning to post this for ages (again, I’ve been busy sorry, I work too dang much), and finally got the time to do it tonight. So! From Goodreads:

An uber-short piece of gristly grimdark flash-fiction by Eric Fomley, and while I’m not normally one for short stories (my read history will point you in the general direction of the sprawling tomes I usually drift towards) I was very, very impressed by Forsaken. Consider me swayed to Team Short Story!

Eric’s first installment in what I’m hoping will be a long series is like a short, sharp shock, a lightning bolt of action, violence and bloodshed where the reader is thrust right into the middle of the goings-on. It’s graphic, visceral and overall extremely intense. I’m a sucker for brutally violent scenes and there’s plenty in Forsaken right from the off.

The world of this book is told more through glimpses and suggestion, and it very much reads episodically to me, almost like the pilot episode to a TV series in a lot of ways.

Eric has a knack for interweaving important plot dialogue around and between scenes of colourful, chaotic violence, and overall I found Forsaken extremely entertaining. I’ll be picking up the second book, Stormwitch, soon, and I’m looking forward to seeing how this series develops.

5/5

Guest Blog: The Grimdark Reality of the Human Mind by Frank Dorrian author of To Brave the End.

My guest post on James Schmidt’s awesome book blog, MightyThorJRS, where I talk about the grimness and darkness of mental illness

Featured Friday! Frank Dorrian

A little interview I did for Zealot Script

To Brave the End paperback cover

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Ok, so it took all night but I finally got the internal map and paperback cover done for this month’s release.

So behold! There’s several weeks of toil, sweat and frustration in this, I’m no artist, after all. But in the absence of a budget to hire one for so short a book im happy with the result I’ve achieved (and extremely thankful for photoshop).

Paperback copies of To Brave the End will be up for sale on the 28th February

To Brave the End – release date 28th February 2017

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Hello there! I that I’ve been silent the last few months on the blogging front. The end of 2016 was a mad scramble of adjusting to a new job and then adjusting to the ridiculous amounts of overtime I agreed to in said job (money calls and what have you), whilst also trying to write and finish up my first standalone novel – To Brave the End.

Finally though, I can say it’s finished and is now available to pre-order on amazon here for 99p.

The book will be released on the 28th of February in eBook and paperback formats on Amazon and other retailers, and I’ll be posting some updated pics of the internal map I’ve finally finished soon too.

Anyone who pre-ordered The Shadow of the High King last year please get in touch with me, as I’ll be giving you a free copy of To Brave the End  as my way of saying thank you for your support!