Michael J. Sullivan's Blog, page 78

The End: Visions of Apocalypse - FREE short stories

While I'm not known for my short stories, I'm starting to warm up to them primarily because of a number of projects that have forced me to try to sharpen my skills in the "limited words" arena.  I recently wrote about my entry entitled "Traditions" that is in the Triumph Over Tragedy Anthology to aid Victims of Hurricane Sandy. So today I'd like to talk to you about another recently released anthology: The End: Visions of Apocalypse.
Like Triumph, I'm not earning anything off of this project, I did it to help others...in this case new fantasy and science fiction authors that are worth discovering.  The project was started by N.E. White who runs monthly writing contests on sffworld a forum I often visit.  Nila's idea was to do what many malls do, get a few large and popular "anchor" stores that draw crowds to lure people into the mall where other great stores are just waiting to be found.  
Why Nila thought I would qualify as such an "anchor" in the world of speculative fiction, only she can answer, but she also was able to snag Hugh Howey whose success is just astronomical (and if you've not heard of Wool you need to crawl out from the cave you've been living in and go buy it). Also adding her talents to the piece was Tristis Ward, whose graphic novel Bones of the Magus was released by Broken Jaw Press. 
So in addition to our three pieces, there are nine stories by relatively unknown new authors that are trying to make a name for themselves.  To make it into the anthology they had to win a spot chosen by members of the sffworld forum.  Here are a list of the stories:
Executable by Hugh HoweyLet's See What Tomorrow Brings by Igor LjubuncicJulia's Garden by Michael AaronTick by Wilson GeigerThe Last Hand by Pete McLeanFly the Moon to Me by Stephen "B5" JonesRelapse by Norman GrayBurning Alexandria by Michael J. SullivanSilver Sky by Liam BaldwinSacrifice by G.L. LathianEmpty by R.F. DicksonMother and Child by Tristis WardIn her introduction Nila says:
"The topics explored herein range from the silly to the profound. Some will give you hope, others will make you pray for a different end, and one might even make you smile."
For my own contribution, I had originally written a short story, Greener Grass about a man who travels far into time and finds what could be considered a dystopian or utopian world, depending on your perspective. Since the world didn't really "end" it really didn't fit the mandate of the anthology so I put that short story out as a stand alone (NOTE: That short also was the seed for a new novel I just completed entitled Hollow World, but that's for a different day and time).
So, I had to go back to the drawing board.  I usually think best when I ride my bike, and my wife and I were spending the day biking around Alexandria VA when I heard the news that Ray Bradbury had died.  Within just a few hours an idea came to me that allowed me to play homage to Ray and hence Burning Alexandria was born. I won't say anything more about the piece, but hope you'll read it and I'm sure you'll understand the title and the connection to Ray.
The good news is that since this project was meant to shine a spotlight, and not done "for the money" it's FREE! (Get it here) So there really is no reason not to download a copy and try out a few of these great stories.  And...if you do read mine, please send me an email me here as I'd love to discuss it with you.

Immortal ConFusion

For those who live in or around Detroit Michigan, I hope you'll have a chance to stop on by the Dearborn/Detroit Doubletree this coming weekend and join me, and some other fantasy authors at Immortal ConFusion. Apparently this is the "little convention with the big names" and is also in my old home town so I'll get a chance to see the family, some friends, and hopefully meet some cool new folks as well.
So who will be there?  Aimee Carter, Al Bogdan, Amity Thompson, Anne Harris, Brian McClellan, Carrie Harris, Catherine Shaffer, Christian Klaver, Christine Purcell, Cindy Spencer Pape, Courtney Moulton, Diana Rowland, Doselle Young, Doug Hulick, Dr. Phil Kaldon, Geoff Landis, Gretchen Ash, Holly McDowell, Howard Andrew Jones, Jim C. Hines, John Klima, John Scalzi, Laurie Gailunas, Lawrence Schoen, Leah Zeldes Smith, Mary G. Thompson, Mary Turzillo, Merrie Haskell, Michael J. DeLuca, Michael J. Sullivan, Michael Underwood, Myke Cole, Patrick Rothfuss, Patrick Tomlinson, Peter Orullian, Peter V. Brett, Ron Collins, Saladin Ahmed, Sam Sykes, Sarah Zettel, Scott H. Andrews, Susan Dennard, Tobias S. Buckell, Violette Malan, Wesley Chu, Maria Dahvana, Headley, Mary Robinette Kowel, and Charles Stross, Scott Edelman, Jennifer Ouellette, James Davis Nicoll, and Bradley P. Beaulieu.
The highlighted names are people I'm most hoping to meet for the first time or revisit with. I'm still very much the "small fry" but I'm hoping to get an invitation to "the big kids table" and  maybe crash the D&D game that was such a blast year. Even it I can't play, it would be fun just to watch I'm sure.
So for those that are interested, I'll be arriving midday on Friday and leaving mid-morning on Monday. The sessions I'll be on panels with include:
Saturday 10:00 AM The End (Erie Room)Fellow Panelists: Catherine Shaffer(M), Christian Klaver, Lawrence Schoen, Maria Dahvana, HeadleyWhat makes a satisfying conclusion? Do we wrap up all loose ends, or leave some plot threads deliciously unexplored in the hopes of returning to them in future volumes? Does the desire for sequels sometimes rob us of a more permanent and concrete end to a story? This panel explores how hard is it to lean back and write "The End". 
Saturday 3:00 PM Genre Expansion In YA Fiction (Southfield Room)Fellow Panelists: Aimee Carter, Courtney Moulton (M), Susan DennardBooks aimed at teens often strive for stories that are relevant to that stage of life. Often times this means a modern setting with teen protagonists taking on some challenge, but not always. Science fiction and fantasy often make the biggest impressions on the YA market: just look to Twilight, The Hunger Games, or Harry Potter. Why is this, and what can fans and creators of SF/F learn from these successes?
Sunday 10:00 AM Too Epic? (Dearborn Room)Fellow Panelists: Patrick Rothfuss, Peter Orullian, Peter V. Brett (M)Multi-volume epic fantasy that takes decades to write and publish is nothing new, nor is the anticipation of fans rabid for the next installment of favorites like Song of Ice and Fire. When thecomposition of a narrative enters its second decade, how does that affect the story? Does the completed version of Wheel of Time bear any resemblance to the plot – or world – hinted at in TheEye of the World? Can an author maintain fidelity to the initial construct? Should one even try? 
Sunday 11:00 AM I’m Not Even Supposed To Be In This Genre (Dearborn Room)Fellow Panelists: Cindy Spencer Pape (M), Holly McDowell, Laurie GailunasThese days we’re as likely to open a book and encounter a noir femme-fatale in our space opera as we are to find a wizard in a noir detective story. Some of  these pairings have been wildly successful, like westerns and sci-fi, while others are somewhat less common. What are some of the potential difficulties in lifting a trope from one genre and playing it in another? Why does this seem to be gaining in popularity? What are some of the best (and worst) uses of this tactic? 
I'll also be at the mass autograph Session which will be in the Ontario Room Saturday at 5:00.  Hope to see you there!

Fantasy authors have big hearts...and big ideas

Fantasy authors are amazing.  Not just because they write stories of the fantastical, which inspire and transport us from the hum-drum world that surrounds most of us, but also because they step up to the plate when a call for help goes out.
Having had some experience in self-published community, I've met quite a few talented writers along the years. One is R.T. Kaelin who has written two books (Progeny and Prophecy) which have done quite well so far.  When I recently got an email from him with an idea of how to help victims of Hurricane Sandy I immediately said, "Sign me up." His idea was brilliant...to produce an anthology of short-stories and give all the proceeds to the Red Cross to provide relief for victims of Hurricane Sandy.  Before long R.T. had authors (and some legends in the industry), asking how they could help, and also those raising their hands to provide cover design and editing.  The whole thing came together and in the end 41 authors contributed.  It sells for just $6.99 and so for every copy sold The Red Cross will receive $4.89 and you'll get some great reads to boot! You can purchase the ebook at: Amazon and Barnes &Noble.

I hope you'll buy a copy. Not only will you be getting some great stories to read, but some people who have lost everything will be helped out in the process.

I'd like to also thanks those who contributed to the book's creation including:

Authors: Elizabeth Bear | Mark Lawrence | Robert Silverberg | Michael A. Stackpole | Michael J. Sullivan | Marion Zimmer Bradley | Jean Rabe | Rick Novy | R.T. Kaelin | Ari Marmell | Jaym Gates | Adrian Tchaikovsky | Vicki Johnson-Steger | Maxwell Alexander Drake | Alex Bledsoe | Stephen D. Sullivan | T.L. Gray | Bryan Thomas Schmidt | Donald J. Bingle | Erik Scott de Bie | C.S. Marks | Tobias S. Buckell | Bradley P. Beaulieu | Steven Saus | Gregory A. Wilson | Alex Shvartsman | Addie J. King | Matt Bone | Doris Stever | Marian Allen | Sarah Hans | Rob Rogers | Tim Marquitz | Elisabeth Waters | Janine Spendlove | C.J. Henderson | Philip Athans | Tracy Chowdhury | Bryan Young | SM Blooding | Timothy Zahn

Editors: R.T. Kaelin | Bryan Thomas Schmidt | Sarah Chorn | Rob H. Bedford

Cover: Artwork by Kevin Ward

You guys are the best!

What’s In A Word?

Marlon Brando, A Streetcar Named Desire, Warner Brothers Films

In my new on-going, and unintentional series of The Strange and Wonderful In The Life Of An Author, allow me to present the Perils of Apparel.
When some cities in the New World, like Washington, DC were created, they were laid out in advance, in great contrast to such old world capitals like Paris which were grown up out of happenstance. We Americans, being new and modern, were pleased with our intelligent designs and sensible, orderly communities. The same, I fear, cannot be said about our language.
There can be no greater grab bag of randomness than the Americanized English language. Rules fail to be consistent, not even the attempts to patch problems with sing-a-long mnemonics. Living languages are messy, particularly one that adopts words and welcomes foreign phrases as readily as the Statue of Liberty invites immigrants.
Recently, while going over edits of my most recent novel, I discovered that my wife had changed my spelling of the word t-shirt, to tee shirt. In the world of an author such insignificance is the kickoff to an adventure of discovery.
I’d never seen the word tee shirt before. I stared at it puzzled. Seriously? Tee as in the tiny pedestal used in golfing? Is that where the name comes from? But golfers mostly wear polo shirts—which in itself is odd. Rugby has a shirt, boxing has shorts, and jockeys too. Why isn’t there a golf-shirt? Given all the money spent on the sport, and the desperate need for better fashions in that endeavor, someone should have invented one by now. The thing was, my general trivia sodden brain remembered that the modern undershirt had something to do with the US military in WWII, and I felt certain this “tee shirt” couldn’t be right.
Just as in days of old, when the ancients were presented with a life altering dilemma, I turned to the wisdom of the great oracle—today we know it as the Internet.
It turns out the first undershirt was created when some intrepid fashionista of the 19th century got it into his/her head to cut in half the traditional “union suit”—that onesie for men often seen in old westerns. 

 This created a top that could be tucked into the waistband of the bottom. Miners and stevedores adopted the garment that came with and without buttons. But as per my recollection the non-button style undershirt was issued by the US Navy as early as the Spanish American War. The inexpensive shirt grew in popularity in the depression as kid’s clothing and work wear. It wasn’t until WWII when so many men were exposed to it through their service, and in the fifties when Marlon Brando wore one in A Streetcar Named Desire, that the garment went from being an undershirt to that of outerwear.
But what about the name? I had assumed it was derived from some military jargon. The answer was far simpler.  The T stands for the shape of the shirt drawn from the stem of the body and the cross of the sleeves.
Given this I judged that tee shirt was incorrect, so was t-shirt. The correct usage had to be T-shirt as the letter shape defines the object. Armed with this knowledge I challenged my wife. She responded with the defense that the Kansas City Staruses tee shirt, and Reuters uses tee-shirt. Further investigation revealed that The Washington Post uses t-shirt, The New York Times uses T-shirt, and most dictionaries use T-shirt.
Such is the state of the English language. We are all subject to a feudal system of numerous warlords who write their own laws.
I’ve discovered that much of the “proper” usage of the English language is defined by authors, as grammarians—like lawyers—often cite various author’s preferences as precedence. Given this, and being an author, I realized that I held the potential authority to determine the future of the literary landscape. So I made the decision.
“It’s T-shirt,” I declared. Given the origin of the word nothing else made sense.
It was at this point my wife mischievously smirked and asked… “what about the wife beater?”
“I’ll go with tank top,” I replied.
“Okay so where did that term come from?”
“Tank top?” My trivia inclined brain made the obvious connection. I recalled Donald Sutherland in Kelly’s Heroes, his dog tags slapping against his tank-topped chest. “Probably got the name because tank crews in WWII wore them.”
Donald Sutherland, Kelly's Heroes, MGM  “Good answer!” Robin replied, but then had to ruin it by doing research.
Tank top comes from the shirt being in the same design as the top of the swimming tank—the one piece bathing suit of the twenties. 

Really? Swimming tank? Oxymoron much?
And this my friends is how an author can lose an hour of editing trying to untangle the ball of kite string that is English.I am certain however that all of you are reassured to know the trouble authors go though in safe guarding the this sacred language that is English.
And people complain about the angle streets in DC.
(FYI: The swimming tank suit predates the military vehicles and refers to the suit of clothes one would wear while swimming in a tank of water, a tank being a large receptacle such as a pool or even a naturally occurring pond or lake.)

Next Big Thing

Right before Christmas I was tagged by author Jeff Salyards for "The Next Big Thing" Meme. For those not familiar with memes they are (according to oracle Wikipedia) "an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena." As Malcolm Gladwell wrote, "A meme is an idea that behaves like a virus—that moves through a population, taking hold in each person it infects."
 
In other words, it’s the phrase epic fail, or I used to be an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow to the knee. It’s videos like the honey badger, and Leroy Jenkins. Songs like Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give you Up, and…well…anything with cats.

In the case of  The Next Big Thing it is a mechanism for authors to let others know of future writing projects. I'm not sure who started it—perhaps one day there will be a branch of science, like anthropology, devoted to discovering the genesis of such things—but the idea is that each author who is “tagged” (asked to participate) answers ten questions. I had the knee-jerk impulse to respond, “African or European?” (Old school meme.) Then each author tags another five to do the same, which makes it a lot like one of those chain letters but without The sword of Damocles, (really old school meme,) threat of impending doom.

I've been very busy editing three (yes three) books over the holiday season. My wife and I spent New Year’s Eve debating the proper spelling of T-shirt (more on that in another post.) So I've not done all my tagging, but I will get to that soon.  One tag I did get around to was R.T. Kaelin because I wanted to bring more attention to the great work he is doing with his anthology Triumph Over Tragedy which is raising money to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy.  I'll update this post as I add other authors.
So here goes my contribution to The Next Big Thing...

1) What is the working title of your next book?
Gah, this should be easy...but isn't.  My next "traditionally published" book will be The Crown Tower (coming Aug 1, 2013) from Orbit books, but I really want to join the ranks of hybrid authors so the current plan is to release a self-published novel before the end of March 2013.  The problem is I have two finished novels: Antithesis (which needs more editing) and Hollow World (which might be picked up by Orbit). So all I can say with 100% certainty is it will be one of those three.

2) Where did the idea come from for the book?
The Crown Tower has its seeds from a short story I wrote during the time that my self-published titles were removed from the market, but my new books were not yet available. It goes back in time to the early days of the forming of Riyria, an enterprise created by the two main characters of my larger series. The idea of Antithesis came to me more than two decades ago, and was written before my ten-year hiatus. It came from my pondering about what I would do, or how I would behave, if I had unlimited magical power. Hollow World came from a short story I wrote for an anthology. It explores a story set in the far future where mankind has moved underground and the surface of the earth has been restored to its natural state.

3) What genre does your book fall under?  
The Crown Tower is traditional classic fantasy and follows characters already well known to my Riyria Revelations series. That being said, it is designed so it can be its own entry point and no prior knowledge of the other series is required. Antithesis is urban fantasy. It is set in modern day America.  Hollow World is a time-traveling science fantasy, where the invention of three very important technologies has completely revolutionized society.

4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
 This is a question that I've been asked often...and I'm going to keep toeing my party line of not answering. I think one of the great things about the written word is that each person can conjure their own "mind's eye" impression of the characters they are reading about, and I don't want to prejudice or bias my reader's own creations. While my publisher has selected actors for the book's covers (which I have no control over), I won't comment about if they align with my own impressions of the pair.

5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?  
The Crown Tower: Two men who hate each other must perform a task impossible to achieve, and if they don't kill each other first, they just might make a legendary team. Antithesis: An unexpected death transfers limitless power to an unsuspecting bystander who is clueless of the consequences of his new found abilities. Hollow World: Is a world without hunger, want, or war a utopia, or does it come with a price too heavy to pay?

6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
The Crown Tower will be released through Orbit, the fantasy imprint of big-six publisher Hachette Book Group.  Antithesis will be self-published.  Hollow World could go either way. It's just too soon to know at this point.

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
With all projects, it depends on when you start counting. Most of my books are "incubated" for years (and sometimes decades), but once I sit down to actually start the writing it generally takes 3 - 4 months and each of these books fell within those timelines.

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
The Crown Tower is obviously very similar to my Riyria Revelations series which is often compared favorably to Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser and works by Patrick Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson, and Brent Weeks. Antithesis is similar to Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid Chronicles or Jim Butcher's Dresden Files. As for Hollow World, it actually has a multitude of themes including the effects of technology, time-travel, romance, and a murder mystery and as such I really don't know any other works to compare it to.

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?  
The Crown Tower was written to perpetuate my wife's love affair with Hadrian Blackwater, one of my fictional characters. Antithesis was just a really cool idea of exploring the old-age conflict between good and evil. Hollow World was never a book I had planned to write, but I got such a positive response from writer friends that read the short story which preceded it that I was excited to put other projects aside to write it.

10) What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?
Anyone who is a big fan of Royce and Hadrian and found they were missing that team at the end of The Riyria Revelations will enjoy The Crown Tower.  The two are much different in this book, and really don't like one another, so seeing how their friendship comes about is quite entetaining. Antithesis has a bit of a comic-book vibe...an ordinary man who gets extraordinary power and how he deals with that transition. While some of my fantasy work can be thought of as light fun adventures, Hollow World explores serious questions about love, individuality, and how one person's perspective of heaven may be someone else's hell. Despite it's serious nature it still has my trademark humor and characters that people genuinely connect with that makes it entertaining as well as thought provoking.

Because my daughter doesn't visit my blog...

My daughter, Sarah, is quite an accomplished artist. Having had some training in art, I have an eye for quality and can be quite critical when it comes to such things. She's also highly competitive and wants nothing more than to "beat her old man." What she doesn't realize, is that she already has.  While I was a decent graphic designer, I never have had the skill for illustration that she does.

At the request of my wife, Sarah has been drawing characters from Riyria as her Christmas gift to her mother. She hates it when I show off her work, because she is stubborn (wonder where she gets that ) and any praise she  receives she wants to earn on her own.  No help from anyone, and least of all from me, her arch-nemesis. 

But my daughter doesn't come to my blog, so I can do what arch-nemisis do best...do everything possible to thwart the hero.  To that end I present to you a drawing Sarah has done for my new series, The Riyria Chronicles,  and more specifically the first book in the series The Crown Tower.

For those that don't know. This book is the origin story of Royce an Hadrian.  Two very different men, who probably not surprisingly, didn't like each other very much when they first met.


TWO MEN WHO HATE EACH OTHER.
ONE IMPOSSIBLE MISSION. A LEGEND IN THE MAKING.A warrior with nothing to fight for is paired with a thieving assassin with nothing to lose. Together they must steal a treasure that no one can reach. The Crown Tower is the impregnable remains of the grandest fortress ever built and home to the realm’s most valuable possessions. But it isn’t gold or jewels the old wizard is after, and this prize can only be obtained by the combined talents of two remarkable men. Now if Arcadias can just keep Hadrian and Royce from killing each other, they just might succeed.

Kindle Deal of the Day: Theft of Swords is $1.99

As I mentioned yesterday, today my book will be featured by Amazon and discounted to $1.99.  This is a very exciting promotion of my books and I hope as many people as possible get the books at the discounted price.  But you have to buy today because at 3:00 AM (EST) Theft turns into a pumpkin...okay maybe not a pumpkin but it will return to it's normal $7.99 price.

Do not buy my ebook on Amazon…today

I know a lot of people don’t like Amazon, I’m not one of them.  I love one-click ordering, I buy everything from socks, to jeans, to books from the site—heck I even bought a rear tail light assembly for my 1994 Toyota (yes I own an 18-year-old car…and until recently its 20-year-old twin) at 1/3 of the price my local auto parts store was selling it for.  When I buy from Amazon, I don’t have to go out into the cold, fight traffic or circle parking lots for hours to find a space. I don’t even have to wait until the store is open.  It's always is there any time, day or night.
Amazon’s customer service is also incredible.  On two occasions my wife broke her kindle (her fault not theirs) and in just a matter of two-days a new one was in her hands, along with a prepaid box to send the broken one back. No hassles and friendly people on the phone. What could have been an incredible hassle turned out to be a pleasurable experience.
But it’s not just as a consumer that I appreciate Amazon. Without question they made my career possible and I can think of no other organization who have done more for authors  in regards to providing them the means to earn a living from their writing. If Amazon had never existed, my books would have remained in a drawer, or shared with just a few close friends and family.
But let’s talk a moment about “discoverability.”  This is that huge hurdle that is the bane of every author. “Back in the day” it was bookstores, and people spending hours leisurely browsing through tens of thousands of books, that got new authors found. But times have changed. Borders is gone, and much of the retail space at Barnes and Noble is now taken up with toys, nook displays, and in-store cafes.  The total number of titles carried is down significantly. Shelf space has shrunk, and in the not too distant future I anticipate that it will only be the household names that will grace the shelves.  
Say what you will about Amazon, they know how to do things right. Through their recommendations, books also bought features, and bestsellers lists I’ve found dozens of authors I’ve never heard of before…both self-published and from traditional houses. I can look at my author page, and see what other authors are cross-selling well with my books—a good sign that I might like what they have written.  
Recently Amazon started a new Author Rank feature where the top 100 authors in a given category were listed. For the first time I could get a feel for how I measured up with my peers.  Royalty statements only come twice a year, but now at any given moment I can see how my sales are doing relative to other authors. Since the start of this new program I’ve been doing fairly well. In the Fantasy Category I’ve been in the Top 100, 20% of the time and in the top 135, 100% of the time. I’m happy with those results, especially given it’s been over a year since my first release, and about eleven months since my last.
Over the last few days I saw significant improvement in my Amazon Author Rank, going from 124 on December 17th to 27 sometime yesterday. 

 
This was a temporary boost, and it came, I suspect, because of some recent sales on audible.com. To my great delight Theft of Swords has been named to three of their 2012 year end lists:
·         Top 20 5-Star Listens for The Best of Everything·         Top 15 5-Star Listens  for Sci-Fi & Fantasy·         #1 Top Pick (out of 5) by one of their editors 
As I said, the bump was temporary and the peek has come and gone. I currently rank in the 40’s and I suspect it’ll continue to fall (hopefully not further than my initial levels), but I’m happy because at least for a little while some people who didn’t know me might have seen my name and my books alongside authors like Abercrombie & Weeks.
So with so many good things coming to me from Amazon, why am I’m asking you not to buy my book from them?  Well notice the qualifier I put on there…“today.” If you can put off your purchase for just a few hours, I’m going to save you some dough, because I am told that tomorrow, December 23, 2012 Theft of Swords will be the Science Fiction & Fantasy Kindle Daily Deal.  For those that aren’t familiar with...

It’s a program where Amazon takes one book (or sometimes a group of books) and deeply discount it for 24 hours. They actually currently run 4 daily deals (general interest, science fiction & fantasy, romance, and children’s books). Right now the list price for Theft is $9.99 and Amazon generally has it discounted to $7.99 but for 24-hours (starting 3:00 am EST) you can get Theft for just $1.99 that’s a savings of 75%!
If you already have a print or audio version, and want to pick-up the ebook this would be the perfect time to do so.  But it also provides a great opportunity for sharing Riyria with your friends and loved ones. For less than $2 it makes a great “stocking stuffer.”  And, not surprisingly, Amazon makes it easy for you to gift an ebook. Here’s how it works.
1.    All you need is the email address of someone you want to send the book to.
2.    On the right side of the screen you’ll see a button to give as a gift

 3.    Then just fill out the form.  You can either have the email sent to you in which case you can print it and place it in a stocking, a card, or a box so that you can deliver it personally, or you can forward the email it to someone far away. There is also an option to send the email on your behalf and you can add a personalized message. (You can even buy it, and have it auto-delivered on the date you specify. Wish they could do that for puppies. Hard to keep one of those a secret.)

4.    The person who receives the gift can download the book anytime they want…they don’t have to receive it on the day of the Daily Deal.  If they already have Theft of Swords, or just don’t think it’s the right book for them…they can accept a gift card instead and use the money to buy something they would rather read.  

NOTE: Even people without kindle ereaders can read a kindle ebook.  Amazon has a kindle application and their software runs on ipad, iphones, blackberries, computers, tablets, and just about anything with a screen. So even if your friend or loved one doesn’t have a kindle…they’ll still be able to read the book.
Historically, books that are featured as the Kindle Daily Deal get a lot of attention, and a lot of sales. More often than not it will put a book in the Amazon Top 100 (something I’ve yet to achieve…the closest I’ve ever gotten was 102), and often they are #1 or in the Top 10.  Being on one of the Bestseller’s lists (Amazon, New York Times, USA Today) is a huge goal for any author, so by gifting Theft of Swords on December 23, you might end up giving me a gift as well…the ability to say I’ve finally “made a list.” 
So, if you’ve enjoyed Riyria, or maybe you’ve heard of it but haven’t purchased yet, today (Sat 22nd of Dec.) is not the day.  Wait a few hours (Until Sun the 23rd) and save yourself some money, and hopefully with so many sales coming in a very short time, the book, and the series will get a little more attention.
Even if I don’t get in the Top 100 I’ve had a great 2012 and a holiday season already filled with joy, and much of that is attributable to all of you and the support you have given me and my books. I hope you are having a safe and happy holiday as well, and that 2013 will bring you and yours a very happy new year.

An Unexpected Sound

I wanted to sell fifty books. That had been my big goal.
In the Spring of 2007 I had finished writing Wintertide and no one showed any interest in reading it. No one. Not a soul had read a word of Emerald Storm even though that book had taken me almost two years to write (the process interrupted part way due to the move to DC,) and had been finished for six months. At the same time my first agent had stopped emailing me. Hadn’t heard a word on her search for a publisher in almost a year. My hope of getting published, which had seemed so possible a year and a half before (when I signed with the agent), was quickly fading.
All of that was deflating, but what put me into a depression was that even my wife hadn’t read the books. She’d stopped after Nyphron Rising two years before. She was working hard and just didn’t have the time.
I didn’t want to say anything. I saw it as supremely selfish. She was struggling to keep food on our table and a roof over our heads. Robin was stressed and I couldn’t complain that she didn’t read my stupid books. She noticed I was growing more and more miserable as spring came on and eventually coaxed out the truth.
Discovering that my agent had suspended her business due to personal problems and that traditional publishing had already rejected The Crown Conspiracy, my wife suggested we try self publishing. This was crazier than it seems.
Some new authors have complained how hard it is to become successful in self-publishing today as opposed to “the old days” like when I started. But in the summer of 2007 the Kindle didn’t exist. Ebooks were mostly unknown. Self published novels were knownto be the product of vanity presses, the foolish and egotistical result of talentless hacks. Success stories in self-publishing were insanely rare and usually restricted to non-fiction. This was the bottom—the place authors went to die.
We hired WendyJo Dymond, an editor we found on the Internet (who I was very pleased with.) I created a CGI cover of a dagger and a crown in a puddle of blood, and laid out the book for print. We even scrapped the cash together for a print run of 300 books that arrived right around Christmas time at the end of 2007 while I was busy writing Percepliquis. Robin was educating herself on how to get reviews, how to get the books into bookstores, and how to use social media to promote. There were no guides, no books, no websites on self publishing back then. We had to figure it out on our own and invent stuff. Then Robin asked me what our goal ought to be. How many books did she have to sell for me to feel I had achieved a level of success.
“Fifty,” I replied. I thought I was being ridiculous shooting for the moon, asking for the impossible, and just to be really mean I added. “Fifty to strangers, not family or friends.”
“I can do that,” she said smugly.
I wasn’t at all certain she could. Such was the state of self-publishing in 2007.
Those original 300 books are still in my closet because on January 1st 2008, we found the email from AMI saying they wanted to publish me and the notion of self-pubbing was abandoned. Instead Robin used her newly acquired wealth of knowledge to hold free seminars to help others taking that path.
Given my goal of selling fifty books, I was thrilled to sell out the first print run of 2200 Crownsthat AMI printed. This was success in my eyes—huge success. I was pretty content. And sales continued to rise as more of the series was published even after AMI was out of the picture and we finally did self-publish. I was so pleased I walked with a swagger. I had done it, I had achieved the impossible.
The thing is…I didn’t know what was possible.
I don’t think most new authors do.
When you write a book you hope to get published. You hope to sell several thousand copies. Ten thousand would be fantastic, because most books don’t sell that many. If you managed to achieve this, you figure that’s it, that’s all that can reasonably be expected. Sure there’s always the far-fetched dream of a movie deal, but that’s like winning the lottery. No sane person ever thinks someone will actually make a movie from their book. So if you sell several thousand copies, you’re done. Time to write the next and hope it does as well. That’s what I thought, but I was very ignorant as you’re about to discover.
The first surprise came from foreign sales. I had some overseas publishers approach me before I joined with Orbit. I didn’t think much about them. I’d heard that overseas publishers didn’t pay anywhere near what a US publisher did. And this is true. I think I got about $3,000 from my first deal. What I overlooked was that there’s a lot of foreign countries in the world. For some strange reason I never imagined how big that market was. Then of course there was the Orbit deal. Something else I never thought would happen.
So now that I landed Orbit and fourteen foreign overseas deals, I figured I had finally squeezed out the last bit of toothpaste from this tube. I was confident in my conclusion. I was also wrong.
Orbit got the audio rights when I signed with them. That is to say, they had the right to sell them to an audio publisher. Of all the venues, I figured audio was the weakest, so no big loss. I was concerned Orbit might not bother to even make an audio book, but I’d live with that. As it turned out they sold the rights to Recorded Books. Cool, I thought. So I have an audiobook for the twenty-five people in the world who would be willing to spend the $40 to buy it. I thought of it as a novelty, (is there a pun there?)
A few months ago I received a bonus check from Audible, who sells my audiobooks. Robin and I were pleasantly surprised to get anything. We did a little dance, because that’s just what you do at times like that.
Then this week something strange began to occur. My author rating on Amazon improved dramatically. Since the inception of the Author Rank (in October) I would fluctuate between 95 – 115 for FantasyAuthors (which meant I was off the top 100 often). Then yesterday I was in the 50’s and today in the 40’s. We couldn’t figure it out. Sure, it was Christmas time. Okay so people might be buying gifts. I had a podcast recently released. I was on a few yearend lists and a few most anticipated books of 2013, but I found it odd that any of this would take me from about 100 to 41. I was beating Neil Gaiman on the Action & Adventure list!
This morning my wife finally sleuthed the mystery: audio books.
Like most authors, I—well okay, my wife does the looking and reports to me—watch the Amazon lists for ebooks and print, and she also checks in on the audible lists. I’m always doing fairly well on each. There was a time during the lull in the summer when only the ebooks were still showing up on the Historical Fantasy Bestsellers list. Then as fall approached my print sales improved and both print and ebooks were there. Today all three of the audio books joined them, and the audio for Theft of Swordswas at #4! Now that is strange.
We had recently discovered that one of the editors selected Theft of Swords as their #1 Pick for 2012.  So that might have been the reason. But a little more digging showed that Theftalso made two other lists:
·         2012 The Best of Everything Top 20 5-Star Listens – Theft of Swords·         2012 Sci-Fi & Fantasy  Top 15 5-Star Listens – Theft of Swords
The first one is the real shocker. My book is listed along with titles by J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen King, Nora Roberts, Vince Flynn, and Ken Follett. As it turns out we completely underestimated the audio market. Theft of Swords now has 200 reviews on Amazon. But—on Audible.com it has over 800 with an amazing 4.5 rating!
All I ever wanted was to sell fifty books. According to royalty statements, unit ledgers, and including my self-pubbed numbers, I’ve now sold over a quarter million. And that doesn’t include foreign language or…audiobooks.
Thank you Tim Gerald Reynolds (the narrator of my audio books), thank you readers, AND listeners, and thank you audible for making audio versions so popular. You’ve made this a very Merry Christmas.

Second Wind

I've had a lot of interviews, and there's been many articles on me and my "rise to fame." I didn't even realize how much of this was out there until I did a podcast with Dave Robison on his Roundtable Podcast (which will be published in two parts on Dec 14, and 18th) and his intro to the show was a dramatic story about my life. I was listening and thinking, how does he know all this stuff about me? After the show he explained he just found it on the web. I was live chatting with another person who was asking my advice, and I began giving examples from my own experiences and they mentioned, "yes, I know your story almost as well as you do."

It's kind of eerie, really.

So apparently there is a glut of me, and yet just today another article came out in The Star Online. I don't make a habit of linking everything written about me. I used to. I used to be so shocked I had to share it with the world. I think people forgive such an attitude in a new author the same way they smile and shake their heads when an excited puppy pees on the floor. Nevertheless, I really liked the Star article. I know the story better than anyone, and I was entertained reading it, so I thought I would link it here.

The article is called: Second Wind.