Chris Tullbane's Blog, page 3

May Tidings

 

Hey everyone! I admit it: I’ve been lax with blog posts lately. Distressingly lax. Thankfully, that’s about to change.

Why? Because my next book is finally done. And it’s just the first of many book-related dominoes set to fall over the next few months.

Unlettered cover art for Speaker of TonguesSpeaker of Tongues

We’ll start with the biggest news first. Speaker of Tongues, my epic portal fantasy LitRPG1 is in final edits now, with the vast majority of my sainted beta readers having provided...

The March to 2024’s New Books

 

Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash

Hey everyone!

See what I did with the subject line? Because… you know… it’s March? Apparently, children are not a necessary pre-requisite for dad jokes!

I’ve been working away on Speaker of Tongues (two alpha readers already have the first few hundred pages!), but I realized it’s been quite a while since I had any non-promotional updates for you all. So, here we are!

First, while Speaker of Tongues is taking a bit longer than expected1, I’m still on track to f...

2023: A Self-Evaluation

Happy 2024, everyone!

In lieu of my usual goodbye letter to the prior year, I wanted to recap 2023 and then, as quickly as possible, turn your attention to the coming year. Because 2023 was, from a professional standpoint, simply not as awesome as it could have been.

(From a personal standpoint? It was pretty dang awesome, especially the second half. Having an amazing wife tends to balance everything out.)

So, without further ado… let’s see what we see.

[Fair warning, a lot of this will be busin...

Sales and One Last Stocking Stuffer

Photo by Volodymyr Yarossvit on UnsplashA Few Extra Gifts to Stuff Your Stocking

Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays! In the spirit of the season, I started a new tradition last December, one in which I write and release a free short story each year. On Christmas, because doing it on December 28th would just be odd. It’s my way of saying thank you to all of you who have taken a chance on an author you’d never heard of, and for joining me on this long, strangely windy road.

Last year saw the ...

A Dead Man’s Favor – Release Retrospective

Somehow, it’s already been four weeks since the release of A Dead Man’s Favor. Wild, right? It feels like it was just yesterday, but according to the calendar, November is on its way, and according to the department stores, Christmas is already here.

As I like to do sometimes, I wanted to share a retrospective on the release. Sales reports, reviews, positives, negatives… basically how everything went and what I can do better in the future.

Fair warning: this post will be numbers heavy, so if tha...

A Dead Man’s Favor is Now Available!

 

In Which the Past Just Won’t Die

After a terribly quiet 2023, it’s hard to believe the day is finally here. A Dead Man’s Favor is officially available! The fifth book in The Many Travails of John Smith finds John living his best life back in San Diego… free (more or less) from Lucia, working with Juliette, and finally getting to explore a relationship with the woman he loves. So, of course, it was my duty as an author to shake all of that up.

A special thank you to all of the alpha, beta, an...

The Chapter Subtitles of A Dead Man’s Favor

A Dead Man’s Favor is the fifth book of The Many Travails of John Smith. That means more adventures for our affable everyman, more supernatural hijinks, more drama and trauma, and especially more of the chapter subtitles that readers know and love.

You know what I’m talking about:

That’s right… “IN WHICH [something something hopefully funny, clever, or at least brief]”

I’ve mentioned before that a part of me regrets ever having used chapter subtitles for this series1, but the fact is, readers ...

A Dead Man’s Favor: Chapter 5

A Dead Man’s Favor, book five in The Many Travails of John Smith, launches September 26th! As usual, I’m counting down to its release by sharing sample chapters, book stats, content warnings, and whatever else seems fun.

Last chapter, Anastasia returned from her most recent trip to Rome and John filled her in on at least some of the recent happenings in San Diego, including both cases he’s been hired for. In Chapter 5, that discussion continues and Juliette has a crisis of coolness. Enjoy!

Pho...

A Dead Man’s Favor: Chapter 4

A Dead Man’s Favor, book five in The Many Travails of John Smith, launches September 26th! As usual, I’m counting down to its release by sharing sample chapters, book stats, content warnings, and whatever else seems fun.

Last chapter, John and Juliette had just returned from an early lunch of sushi and saké, when they were met by Susan, the wife of John’s best friend, Mike. It’s only been a few months since Mike and Susan were married, but she suspects that he is already cheating on her and want...

A Dead Man’s Favor: Chapter 3

A Dead Man’s Favor, book five in The Many Travails of John Smith, launches September 26th! As usual, I’m counting down to its release by sharing sample chapters, book stats, content warnings, and whatever else seems fun.

In Chapters 1 and 2, we caught the tail-end of a wedding reception as Simon, zombie prince of San Diego, showed up to call in the favor John owes him from Ghost of a Chance. In Chapter 3, John focuses all of his less-than-considerable attention span on that case. Enjoy!

Photo ...