Michael J. Sullivan's Blog, page 4

Meetups in Chattanooga Feb 20 - 24

We are still mainly "offline (click for announcement here)," but given the following is time-critical, I've (Robin) have popped up here to post.

For those in the Chattanooga area (or those going to Con Nooga 2025), Michael and I will be in your neck of the woods. 

NOTE: If you DO NOT have badges for the convention, we can arrange to meetup with you outside the venue (just like we did for Dragonsteel Nexus).

Michael will be the literary guest of honor for this event, and I have some panels on the "business side"  of writing, but this will probably be the last convention we'll be attending.  We enjoyed both Worldcon in Scotland and DragonSteel Nexus in Salt Lake City, but the travel was hard on both of us (especially flying since we don't live near any airports), so we don't see any future event attendance.

That said, we will have times when people can visit us at our home in the Shenandoah Valley. We have scheduled meetups there on March 16th,  March 29th, and July 24 - 27. For more information on those events send an email to michael.sullivan.dc@gmail.com with the subject: SEE YOU IN LURAY in MARCH or SEE YOU IN LURAY IN JULY respectively and we'll provide additional details.

As for this event, here's what you need to know:

06:00 PM - Feb 20 - We will be arriving at the Chattanooga Marriott Downtown
03:00 PM - Feb 21 - Robin will be on the panel: So How Much Will I Make?06:00 PM - Feb 21 - Michael will do a world-building workshop02:00 PM - Feb 22 - Michael will do a writing relatable characters workshop 04:00 PM - Feb 22 - Michael will  do a starting your story workshop05:00 PM - Feb 22 - Robin will be on the panel: Let's Get this Thing Started: Kickstarters12:00 PM - Feb 23 - Michael & Robin will do an Ask Me Anything session09:00 AM - Feb 24 - We will be leaving for our return to VirginiaThere will be a booth for us at W-11 and we'll likely be hanging out there outside of the hours above (except for non-con meetups).  If you have books that need signing, and you won't be at one of the above events, stop by the booth.

Also at the booth we'll have copies of FREE Death of Dulgath hardcovers to giveaway as well as The Jester Comic.  You can also order signed/dedicated copies of other books and we'll ship them for free in the US.

If you won't be at the convention, or just want to have private time (a drink, a talk, lunch, or dinner) then send an email to michael.sullivan.dc@gmail.com with the subject: SEE YOU IN CHATTANOOGA IN FEBRUARY and we'll coordinate that.
I think that about covers it, but if you have any questions, send us an email.

Store Closure and Radio Silence

 Hey all, Robin here. Just doing a quick post to say that 

I've temporarily closed our online storeAny emails won't be looked at for a bitMichael and I are currently in Michigan dealing with a family medical emergency - and as we aren't able to access the Internet at this time. 

Meetup in March

We JUST got back from DragonSteel Nexus and it was a great time! We met so many nice people and were glad to be able to meetup with people both inside and outside the convention. Robin just got a request from our agent for me to participate in GalaxyCon to be held in Richmond in March (27-30 to be precise). We turned them down. Even though it's only a bit over 2 hours from our house, it would just be too much of a time sink as they wanted me for multiple panels and a master class.

But . . . 

For anyone who does plan on coming to the convention, (or if you just happen to be around these parts around those dates) and you would like to take a detour to to the lovely Shenandoah Valley, you can certainly stop by the cabin for a drink, some snacks, and a chat. You can also bring your books and I'll sign and dedicate them.

Just send an email to michael.sullivan.dc@gmail.com and use SEE YOU IN LURAY IN MARCH as the subject and Robin will do some organization.

Here's hoping some people take us up on the offer!

10 full-length Audiobook novels FREE!

So, we've (Robin, Sarah, and myself) have been at Dragonsteel Nexus in Salt Lake City for the last three days. As people came up to us asking about the books, we talked about the fact that we had physical copies for sale from the booth, but also audiobooks.  While someone was standing there they pulled up audible and said, wow - the first book is available right now for free - that was news to us.  A bit later, another person pulled up and noticed the whole Riyria set was free.  Wow! We thought, that's odd (that the publisher didn't let us know), but it was also cool.

Well, I (Robin), am having breakfast and it turns out that EVERY audiobook that we've had produced thorough Recorded Books (except Drumindor), is FREE right now - but I have no idea for how long . . . and I'm not sure if this is true for other venues that Recorded Books sells books for.  So what is free?

All Riyria Revelations:

First Two Riyria Chronicles:

First four books of Legends of the First Empire

Also Hollow World and Short Stories
 




































I have to breakdown the booth and head to the plane, so I don't have time to check the Graphic Audio books (GA is owned by Recorded Books) but some of those may be free.

An oldie but a goodie

 I'm not sure when I first happened upon this but I'm pretty sure it was during my early days in publishing. Give it a watch - very entertaining. It's just a little over 4 minutes but highly entertaining.

DragonSteel Nexus Dec 5 - Dec 7

 

Robin, myself, and our daughter Sarah will be attending the DragonSteel Nexus Convention in Salt Lake City. We'll be at Booth 104 (a double booth we are sharing with Shawn Speakman's Grim Oak Press). We'll be staying downtown and won't have a car, but if you can get to the convention center area, we'd love to do a meet and greet.
We'll be selling books there, and have some great show specials as well. But you won't have to worry about carrying them around or backing them for the trip home - we'll take the orders at the show but ship once we get back to Virginia. 
Oh, and be sure to bring any books you already have for signing.  From past experience I know some people just bring one or two because they don't want to "be a bother" - but it's no bother - bring as many as you'd like!
Also, I know there are a lot of people who couldn't get tickets to the event (they sold out fast), so we'll have plenty of ability to interact without requiring admission to the convention center.  If you would like to meetup send an email to michael.sullivan.dc@gmail.com with the subject: SEE YOU IN SALT LAKE CITY. We'll be getting in a bit late on the 4th but once we are settled in - we'll start scheduling times.
Hope to see you there! 

Drumidor Audiobook Release Day!

 

It's here! Tim Gerard Reynolds joins Royce and Hadrian for the first Riyria adventure in over six years. Come join the boys, along with Gwen, Arcadius, and Albert as they travel to Tur Del Fur to attempt to  stop a disgruntled dwarf from destroying the twin towers of Drumindor.  It's over twenty and half hours of non-stop fun and adventure. 

Riyria Chronicle Reader Quotes

For the print version of Drumindor, we put out the call for quotes we could use on the back of the book - and we were thrilled by the response. Of course there's only so much room, so many of the comments couldn't be used.  But it got Robin thinking - maybe we can see more reader's names in print if we do the same thing for books #1 - #4 of the Riyria Chronicles.
So, if you have read and enjoyed any of the following books, we'd love it if you could write a little recommendation quote - and we'll pick some different names to use for the other books in the series. 

 The titles we are soliciting quotes for are:Riyria Chronicle #1 - The Crown TowerRiyria Chronicle #2 - The Rose and the ThornRiyria Chronicle #3 - The Death of DulgathRiyria Chronicle #1 - The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter So please use this link to submit your opinion .  And maybe you'll be seen on the back of the books as shown by the following mock up

The Storm via the Unavowed Kickstarter

    
Recently, I announced "The Cycle Project" which is my current work in progress that is a sequel to the Riyria Revelations. It will pull from all twenty of the books based in Elan. To fill in some important gaps in the overall story arc, I'm going to be publishing some short stories and the first one is called "The Storm." I'm debuting it as part of the Unavowed Anthology released by Shawn Speakman's Grim Oak Press.



Grim Oak Press puts out some of the best anthologies out there. I'm honored to be in several of them including Unfettered, Unfettered II, and Unbound.

Not only will it contain my short story, but also shorts from some of the best indie authors out there, many of whom are personal friends.

The Kickstarter launched yesterday and there are early-bird discounts for backing within the first 24 hours - so check it out and please pick up a copy.  Here is a link.

The Unavowed anthology features stories by twenty-two (22) short stories. Here is a complete list:

The Touch of the Eternal by J. A. Andrews

The Last Ride of Kanashimi by Zack Argyle

Rival of Ghosts by Dyrk Ashton

The Old Lie by Ryan Cahill

My Soul Has Teeth by Sarah Chorn

The Wanderer by A. C. Cobble

Lord of Vengeance by Michael R. Fletcher

The Last Sentinel by Rob J. Hayes

Sinner's Grave by Kevin Hearne

Curse These Metal Hands by Ben Galley

Hild the Humble by Michael R. Miller

A Mother's Love by Andy Peloquin

The Power of Perception by J. Zachary Pike

Fragile Gods by J. D. L. Rosell

The Unavowed Light-Weaver by Shawn Speakman

A Darker Talent by M. L. Spencer

Sails at Dusk by Patrick Swenson

The Storm by Michael J. Sullivan

The Darkdancer by Ramon Terrell

The Parable of the Silk Weaver by R. R. Virdi

How the Dragons Became Extinct by M. L. Wang

The Brotherhood of Shadows by Jeff Wheeler

What's Next? The Cycle

 

A few days ago, we released the ebook of Drumindor to the Kickstarter backers.  In it, I announced what I'm currently writing. But that announcement only went out the 2,200+ people who bought the ebook as an "add-on." For us, this announcement is pretty exciting, so we're going to share it with everyone else here. 

The Cycle Project

With the completion of The Rise and Fall series and now Drumindor, some of you have asked, “What’s next?” And you haven’t just inquired, I’ve received suggestions.

Some of you want to see a story about the First War, others the early years of Royce and Hadrian. Although after the release of The Rose and the Thorn — after seeing how Royce used to be in the old days — I’m seeing fewer requests for that. By far the top request, however, has been for a post-Riyria Revelations book or series. To understand why I’ve resisted this idea you first need to know how I write my books. 

I am not a fan of stories that start out fantastic and then quickly run out of steam with each added installment. Usually, this happens because the author puts all their “best stuff” up front to gain an audience. I don’t do that. When I started writing the Riyria Revelations, I didn’t think any of them would be published, so I wasn’t concerned about making a “big splash” with my initial offering. Instead, I saved all the juicy stuff for the end. As a result, the last book in that series has been the best — by design — mostly because it was the culmination of everything that came before. Knowing I couldn’t top that, I wasn’t about to try. 

The entire notion was incomprehensible. How could I raise the stakes higher than they were? How could I make the climax more dramatic? The series-long plotline had been satisfied and there was simply no way to top Percepliquis. In order to do that I would need a larger, profounder, over-arching plot: something with even greater stakes, more characters, and a bigger bang at the end. Without knowing it, what people were asking me to do would require nothing less than creating a whole new series devoted to the forming of the world and the Novronian Empire. Then it would be necessary for me to write another series linking those books to the Riyria stories. And somehow in doing all that, I must nurture a growing desire — no, a desperate need — on the part of the readers to see how it all turns out.

And that, dear friend, is just crazy. 

A good case could be made that I am not altogether sensible because, of course, that’s exactly what I did when I spent a decade writing the Legends of the First Empire and The Rise and Fall series. This effort, that culminating in the publication of Farilane and Esrahaddon, launched a new contender for the most requested suggestion that has rocketed to the top spot: the desire to know what happens to Turin. 

In one sense this was good, as that was the point after all, to establish a hunger in my readers for something greater. But it’s also like getting everyone’s attention by grabbing the microphone at a wedding. The audience expects you to say something worth hearing, and as it turns out, laying the foundation was the easy part of this challenge. 

The obstacles were overwhelming. I would need to invent new content and seamlessly marry it to aspects of Elan previously known only to myself. I also had to tie up twenty books in a comprehensive bow all while maintaining the established rules and laws of my world — meaning I couldn’t cheat. These pre-established, load-bearing walls that can’t be relocated or removed, would hinder, if not entirely prevent, me from creating my be-all, end-all masterpiece that could challenge Percepliquis for the top spot. Because of this, I didn’t know if what I hoped to do was even possible.

When facing such an insurmountable task, I did what any normal person would do in my situation. I formed a committee of highly skilled experts in the world of Elan and ordered them to deliberate on the feasibility of contemplating such a project. This became The Exploratory Committee and given the necessary requirements to sit on such an esteemed advisory council, the TEC became a committee of one — me.

On February 23rd of the year 2022, The TEC entered the research and development room, and the door was nailed shut. For more than two and a half years the committee has deliberated in secrecy. Recently, however, there have been some leaks — both good and bad. Perhaps the worst is that “The Project” cannot receive a green light until all the required books have been written. I don’t like promising something I ultimately can’t deliver, so I won’t. The best news is that “The Project” has been officially renamed: The Cycle. This wouldn’t have happened if the committee didn’t have a high degree of confidence in the outcome because giving something a name has the power to breathe it into existence.

Since Drumindor may very likely be the last novel I publish for a number of years, we won’t be able to have these little chats for some time. As such, I want to leave you with a means of checking up on the process of The Cycle Project. You can do so by visiting our webpage at bit.ly/the-cycle or by joining the discord server found at bit.ly/cycle-discord. Through these outlets we will endeavor to keep you up to date with any significant developments