Herman P. Hunter's Blog: Herman P. Hunter's THE LORE FORGE, page 6

Status Update - May / June 2022

So...I'm a little late getting the status update out. If there are any of you who look forward to these, my apologies. Suffice to say that writing a new book, and getting another ready to publish, my plate is a little full.

Oh, and lots of stuff going on. This will be a fairly long update.

THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB

Well, THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB had two landmark (watershed?) events in May 2022. First - and most exciting - my last ad campaigns drove the book into the Christian Fantasy Top 100 list on Amazon. For roughly two weeks, my book was in and out of that list, daily. At one point, it managed to remain in there for a good 24+ hours.

Part of the problem, however, is that I didn't have consistent enough sales to keep it there. Plus, the other books in that list had at least 4 times the number of reviews I have, meaning that they have enough units sold over so many months and years, that they will stay in the list, while mine drops out. Still...it's a notable accomplishment.

And, sporadic sales of the Kindle book (the only format of it I can track) continue. I'm not sure how long this will last. My hope is that the sales are coming from word of mouth recommendations, which is what I'm looking to generate. Let's all pray this is true.

The second landmark: I broke 100 books sold. I actually think the number is sitting around 150 units sold. This means that I've sold over 100 eBooks, paperbacks, and audiobooks since March 3rd. My pie-in-the-sky target is 500 units by March 3rd 2023 which - I think - I can hit.

Most self-published books sell roughly 250 copies over their lifetime. I'm halfway there in a matter of a few months.

Likewise, the feedback has been pretty positive. Since the start of May, I've had 5 people ask me, out of the blue, when the next book comes out. These are just people who know how to get ahold of me. There's no telling how many, out of the 100+ who've bought my book, that are asking the same question.

To that end...

THE WIZARD ODO

Revisions are going slow. The book is roughly 28 chapters and I'm sitting on Chapter 15 at present. So, I'm over halfway done with the first "smoothing pass." The revisions get much easier once this initial pass is complete.

My writing process is pretty well-defined right now. I write a first - or "rough" - draft of the book, filling in over 80% of the material that needs to be in there. After that, I go into a "revision" process where I fill in the gaps, reword the story in certain spots, play with the prose, and so on, and so on. It's rather long and tedious. I'm under a time crunch because I want to get this book in the hands of my beta readers before July rolls around. So, I need to step things up a bit.

I think the story is solid. However, given the feedback I garnered from THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB, I'm a little nervous how this book will be received. I call it a "rollercoaster" book, because there is a bunch of action and tension in the beginning, a bunch of action and tension at the end (as an FYI, Chapter 14 is where this second run starts), with chapters in between that are (more or less) just informative. While it has a lot of the same pace, the story itself is not the slow tensioning of a rubber band before releasing it into the air like THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB. Plus, there is more depth to this story than just my debut offering which I termed "just a fun little book."

Hopefully, my fears will be dispelled and my approach will be well-received this time as well.

I'm hoping to have this released before the end of the year, however, I think that's an ambitious goal given the lessons learned from THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB. A more comfortable date, I think, is early March again. I will strive to get this out as soon as possible. There are many elements that just take time to complete and cannot be done in parallel with other tasks. It is what it is.

Given the nature of the story and the protagonist, this character may be "one and done," meaning that there will be no other stories where Odo is the main character. Then again, I believed that Halsedric was a "one and done character" too. Which then leads me to...

THE REVENANT AND THE CULT

You asked for another book with Halsedric. OK. You're getting one.

THE REVENANT AND THE CULT is the title of my next book after THE WIZARD ODO. It will feature Halsedric and Herodaini as well as introduce a new character named Roe. I have about four or five chapters written at this point, though I'm struggling with a few elements at present. I have a rough idea of how the story will end as well as a couple of odd twists. The most notable chapter, however, is the prologue where I set up a meeting between two "dark lords." Pay close attention to this chapter. It has ties into THE WIZARD ODO, as well as a bunch of books I have waiting to be revised and published. And, it introduces some overriding elements - namely a prophecy or two - that come into play as I release some of the stuff I have in waiting.

I have one more book planned for Halsedric, of which I have written a few pages and a couple of short stories.

Where is Drahm? I liked Drahm, but I decided that - given all that he had experienced - he converted to the worship of the One God of the West, and was sent to help missions in the south west of my world. This region is a dangerous place to be during this time period (even during the time period of THE WIZARD ODO).

I like to call Roe, "Drahm-Lite." He has similar characteristics to Drahm, is a skilled trapper, and is also a wilderness expert. I don't want to give away too much about the character but, suffice to say, he has an interesting backstory.

"What about Tulvgir?" you ask? Well...

My "Black Conan" Book

I know I've mentioned this elsewhere but I've had this idea of having a Conan-like character in my literary world. I struggled a bit to place them in my style of writing, but have come upon - what I believe to be - a good combination.

The next character is a Halsedric-like character, who is Cathar in origin. I introduce the Cathars and Oncathars in THE WIZARD ODO, as well as detail the differences and history between the two cultures. The Cathars - because they are bound to the religion of The Four - are the most "barbarian-like" people in my literary world, making them a prime candidate for the character I want to create: a Cathar prince who was crucified for breaking with his faith and following the Word of the Allfather.

Given that I don't want to go into spoilers about Halsedric or his origins, this is as much as I will reveal.

I wanted another Conan, as I am a huge fan of the original Robert E. Howard work. I wanted to create a serious, brooding, and highly intelligent character who is, more or less, a hunter of evil. I originally wanted to make him a follower of "older gods" worshipped by the Cathars before they adopted the practices of The Four. While an interesting premise, the story I had in my head just wasn't clear.

The story I have in my head for this version of this character is very clear. In fact, it may get released before THE REVENANT AND THE CULT if I start working on it now. The story itself is very much in the vein of THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB. Nonetheless, I'm dedicated to writing and publishing this in the near future.

And Tulvgir will be in it. The story will be set in the tropics and will have some Aztec-like flavor to it.

As a side note, I've always been fascinated with Native American culture, mainly because it has been so influential in my home state: Michigan. This also extends down into the Central American region, where the Maya, Olmec, Aztec, and Inca civilizations once existed. So, this book gives me a chance to add a little of that flavor to my stories.

Wrapping it all up

You might not get another status update until late July / early August. I've put off making videos because I have a lot of writing tasks going on, as well as a lot of new projects I'm developing. In addition to having a full-time gig I also have to promote a book, look into expanding my business, plan for the next release, as well as write. It's a lot of work. I'd rather put time and effort into producing books than videos and blog posts.

I'm also looking into maybe providing some writing and storytelling courses, but that's way, way out in the future. I want to have a bunch of successes under my belt before I go around acting like an expert.

Lastly, the wife and I have decided to remodel our spare bedroom - which was our combined work area - into an office dedicated to my work. She uses laptops now, hasn't used the desk dedicated to her for, literally, years now. I'm beginning to get requests for interviews and I do appear - from time to time - on various livestreams. We might as well make it a dedicated office for the writing business. Plus, the room is a mess. So...clear it out and organize it, so I don't have to make videos in the garage anymore.

Thus, I might be down for a bit as we're going to have a hardwood floor refinished (it's an older house).

So, that's it for now.

Status Update - April, 2022

I'm a bit late getting this out. This month's theme: reviews and advertising.

THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB

So, as you already know, the audiobook was released on March 31st. I have no sales data as of yet, despite knowing that I've sold at least three copies. Yes...three WHOLE copies!

One of them came right out of the blue - a person I know from the YouTube chats I participate in. He told me that he bought it (as I am always promoting my book), and that he thought the audiobook was awesome. SCORE! He left a review.

I've been advertising the book on my own (through things like scheduled tweets) and through paid boosts and adverts. Initially, I focused on the audiobook, but as of the writing of this blog, I'm trying to cover all of my bases. I have sales numbers for my paperback (good) and my eBook (miserable), but nothing reported yet on the audiobook. Findaway Voices claims that it takes two- to three-weeks before sales data shows up, which I'm hitting right about now. I'm going to give it four weeks before I start making a stink.

Again: I know I have at least three sales of audio books. Numbers should be showing up.

I also contracted a company to store ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies), and to offer a set number of free copies of my book in exchange for a review. Mind you - it is no guarantee of a good review, only that the reader will leave one once they complete the book.

As of the writing of this blog, here's where I stand:

I have 2 Bookbub recommendations (both 4 stars) on top of that.

I'd like more reviews, especially on Amazon, but all in all, it's not bad for my first release.

Which, by the way, if you want to help my efforts, please leave an honest review of my book if you've completed it. And please, leave the review at the site you purchased it from.

Reviews are essential for new authors, especially if they are self-published. I have to compete with a deluge of new titles being released every year, some of them only selling less than ten copies over their lifetime. I also have to compete with the big publishing companies, who have dedicated marketing and promotion departments. While my ratings are good, many readers will not even look at a book unless it has a certain, pre-determined number of reviews available to look over. Some only need five reviews / ratings, others have a threshold of ten. Thus, the more reviews I get, the more likely people will be willing to take a chance on my book.

So please, read and review. Thank you in advance.

THE WIZARD ODO

As of the writing of this blog post, I've reached Chapter 8 of 25 chapters during this initial revision pass. I just discovered that I need to split one chapter into two, so that maximum number of chapters is going to hit 26.

The revisions are going good. I'm debating on changing some of the characteristics of the main character. I'm also considering adding a chapter in the middle of the book - this, I think, is a good thing.

I need to get the lion's share of revisions by June, when my beta readers are available.

The Next Book

The next book is a bit of a toss-up at present. I've started on the follow-up to THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB, and I'm about 5 chapters in. At present, I'm just throwing ideas down on paper. Some of those ideas are complete chapters, while others are fragments.

This book will feature Halsedric (of course), Herodaini, and a new character named Roe. Tulvgir will not appear in this book.

What's the story about? Well, Halsedric is sent off to investigate reports of strange activity in the southern region of the Aweiliador. The Aweiliador is a large open grassland between the Sorrowing Sea, and the regions of The Vale and Nolangard (the land of the Nolans - Halsedric is of Nolan extraction ). His investigations lead him to a large forest known locally as "the Wychwood." As you can probably guess, the Wychwood isn't exactly a sylvan paradise.

The story itself is loosely connected to THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB. I will say this: pay close attention to the prologue. It's important for future books.

There are two connected short stories that I've written which relate directly to THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB. Besides finishing them, I'm trying to figure out how to distribute them as well as a fee structure. Most likely, I will sell them on my website at some point. Keep a sharp lookout for these.

Another story I'm seriously considering at present is a project that I'm dubbing "The Heretic." It is a Robert E. Howard-esque character of Cathar origin. The Cathars are a people who are very clannish, militaristic, and adhere to the worship of The Four. The character I'm currently crafting is the son of a deposed Cathar chieftain, who is restored to life by a wandering prophet in the same way Halsedric was. He too, will be an avenging force for the Allfather.

While I've always seen Halsedric as an outwardly passive and contemplative character, this new character will be both imposing and brooding. It will be a slight departure from the typical characteristics of the protagonists I generally write.

The story I have buzzing around in my head right now will include Tulvgir. The events take place in a period of time between THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB and Halsedric's next mission. In it, Tulvgir seeks honor and glory aiding this new character on a singular mission.

I'm pretty excited about this story and I have a clearly defined antagonist in mind. This adventure will involve a mysterious pyramid, located deep in a dense jungle to the south and east of my literary world. And, like many things I write, it will have tie-ins to other works I have completed, or am contemplating.

Hopefully, I will be able to provide another short, fun adventure as I did in THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB. And who knows, if the reception of this character was as good as that of Halsedric, I might do another story or two with him.

And that's all for now.

How Much Did it Cost Me to Publish My Book?

Now that the book is out, lets discuss the financial part of being your own publisher. The "master of your fate." The "captain of your ship." Or...uh...whatever.

I'll break the costs down by function. Mind you, this is just the cost to do the eBook and a paperback. It does not include doing a hardback edition (at 5" x 8" doing a 39,500 word hardbound book is laughable), audiobook editions (wink, wink), or promotional costs (the subject of another blog post).

Editing

I did two rounds of professional editing. The first was a line edit. Then, after several rounds of revisions, I sent it in for a proofread.

Why did I not do my own editing? The answer is simple. If you've read my blog enough, you'll know that I suck at editing. Like...really bad.

Cost: $300.00 (USD).

Author's note: mind you, this is on the LOW side of editing cost. Relatively speaking, it's a small book. The cost for editing on my next book will undoubtedly be higher.

Book Cover Art

This I had done with a company call EBook Launch. Their site had a money-back guarantee, but that still didn't keep me from sweating bullets. You have to pay them the entire balance - in advance - prior to commencing the work. And, generally, the only people who make you do that are scam artists.

But, I have to say, they did a superior job. A lot of people liked the cover. So, it was money well spent, in my opinion.

Why didn't I just make my own cover Because I suck at that too. Plus, I've seen "good author-made" covers. Trust me, the majority of them look like they were made by people who aren't professionals.

The cost covered the eBook version as well as the print book. However, you need to go back to EBook Launch AFTER you've:

Formatted your book, Purchased one or more ISBN for print editions.

I'm only doing a paperback version, so I only needed to acquire 1 ISBN independently of my distributors (next section).

The nice thing about EBook Launch is that they do work that will just plug right in to most self-publishing services. The stuff I had made just...worked. No muss. No fuss.

The downside was, I was locked into a single print format: 8" x 5". Okay, whatever.

Cost: $595.00 (USD).

Service Processing Fees / Distributors

At some point, I had to determine who was going to distribute all of the formats of my books. Was I going to go Amazon / KDP exclusive, or branch out? And who would be doing my distribution if I decided to not go KDP exclusive?

First: exclusivity in the age of techlords banning people from their platforms just SCREAMS "dumb idea." So, goodbye KDP exclusive. The last thing I want is a bunch of butt-hurt maniacs shutting me down because I'm not woke enough. It's part of the reason why I have a half-a-dozen social media accounts. KDP's "exclusive perks" aren't incentive enough for me to potentially slit my own throat.

(By the way, WOKE authors? You're not immune from this. Just warning you now.)

There are a bunch of services that will put you in a variety of online storefronts. However, after doing a little bit of research, I decided on Draft2Digital. They seemed to offer me the best cut of the revenue, and I've heard a lot of good things about their service.

However, Draft2Digital doesn't have a Print On Demand service...well, not really. They had a beta program going on, but I wasn't about to put my debut in the hands of a service still in its testing phase. So, that led me to Ingram Spark for POD (Print on Demand). I knew comic people that used Ingram Spark, and they had nothing bad to say about the print quality (not so much for the customer service, I might add).

I will say this: Ingram Spark's web user interface SUCKS. if something goes wrong and you try and back stuff out, nothing clears. These types of bugs made things five-times worse trying to get all of my information in. However, there were some benefits, one of which I will describe later.

Keep in mind that Ingram Spark is not geared to the newbie self-publisher. They can do a whole array of things as they relate to printing, distribution, and returns. So, before you start, MAKE SURE YOU WATCH A FEW SELF-PUBLISHING ADVICE VIDEOS ABOUT USING INGRAM SPARK. It will save you a lot of frustration, and potentially some unwanted financial surprises.

There is no up-front cost to using Draft2Digital. They take 10% of your incoming revenue, while places like Apple and Barnes and Noble take 30%. You get 60%. That's not a bad deal. Plus - and this is huge - THEY WILL PROVIDE AN ISBN FOR YOUR BOOK IF IT IS REQUIRED. Some outlets require an individual ISBN for your eBook. It's a huge savings and Draft2Digital provides that, essentially, for free. That gets paid out of their cut of your royalties.

Ingram Spark requires a $49.00 fee for setup. You WILL need an ISBN for each book you have them handle, which they will provide at a reduced cost (see below).

Cost: $49.00 (USD).

ISBN Numbers

Technically, an eBook doesn't need an ISBN, though some outlets require one. A print book, technically, doesn't need an ISBN, though I doubt any outlet would sell a paperback without one.

The cost for a single ISBN was something like $135.00. This made me choke. It's a frickin' number, not a set of steak knives.

Draft2Digital supplied what I needed for free. Ingram Spark offered a discounted ISBN for $85.00. So, I jumped on that.

Cost: $85.00 (USD).

Copyright Costs

Technically - again - you don't have to submit your manuscript to the Copyright office for it to be protected from Intellectual Property theft. But...if you don't register, and there is legal battle, not having one makes everything messier.

And, no, mailing your manuscript to yourself doesn't protect you. The Copyright website explains this in some detail. Having your work recorded in the Library of Congress puts it in an official record.

Copyright law does and doesn't protect you by default. So, register, and be assured that your rights are secured.

Cost: $65.00 (USD).

Interior Book Formatting

I'm sure that if I knew what I was doing, I could format my book just fine. But I didn't know what I was doing. So I had both formats - print and digital - formatted for me. In fact, I was made aware that different outlets require different format standards.

EBook Launch to the rescue. They formatted both print and eBook versions...twice. First with the information I provided. Then with the information I realized I left out of the book.

I hate making mistakes. I was really mad at myself.

Initial Cost: $280.80 (USD).

Screw-ups: $30.00 (USD).

Overall Cost: $310.80 (USD).

Overall Cost

This brings me to a final cost of $1,404.80 (USD).

Cost per 1000 words: $35.57 (USD, rounding up).

That doesn't include any promotional costs, or all of the other insane crap I've been doing thus far.

Looking at the market on Amazon, I went low with the eBook and priced it at $2.99 (USD). Given that it is a short read, I wanted the customer's cost to be fairly low as I want to provide the appropriate cost for the value. The paperback, I had to price at $8.99 (USD), which I thought was expensive given that it's just a novella. I actually wanted to price it lower, but the costs to distribute it in other countries was just WAY too prohibitive - I would have been losing money on every copy.

This means that I will make roughly $1.70 on an eBook, and a little over a $1.00 per paperback. The eBook revenue doesn't trouble me at all, but the margin I make on the paperback is actually worrisome. If printing costs go up - which is a distinct possibility - I either have to raise prices, or eat the cost. That $1.00 is actually a buffer in that I'm betting I only lose $0.50 if there are cost increases.

The irony is that the lowest cost eBook makes me more money that the higher-priced paperback.

Anyhow, assuming I only sell eBooks (and believe you me, this is my hope), It means I have to sell about 827 copies to break even with production costs. Promotional costs may very well double that number. In fact, I think the true number I need to sell is somewhere around 2000 books.

That's ten-times the number of books an average self-published author sells over the lifetime of their book.

So, if each of you buys 20 copies...

Anyhow, now that you've seen the sausage being made, still interested in self-publishing?

The reality is that THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB was a promotional book and is still a promotional book in many ways. I knew producing it was going to be a learning experience...and a costly one at that.

The other thing to consider is that most people that self-publish don't actively promote their books. No one knows about them, so they just don't sell. I'm actively trying to promote my book, and putting my name out there. I'm sure I have a few painful lessons yet to be learned, but this is a short-term cost for a much longer-term goal. I'm building a following, building a brand, as well as laying down the initial tiles in the literary mosaic I hope to complete one day. I have to look at it as making my bones in this business...somehow.

I'm sure I'm not the first one to have to drag myself up this hill. I just wish it was easier.

Anyhow, I'll detail the costs of promotion in a later post.

Drawn and Quartered Fan Edition - THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB

A video montage (not sure if that's the correct word for it) of the drawings completed during this livestream. Enjoy!

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/5b7182_e09b3116d1e54968aacde6e84837581b/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Status Update - March, 2022

This has been a fairly chill month. Oddly enough, some stuff went better than expected.

THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB

Not much to say except that, as of 3/23/2022, THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB has 3 5-star reviews / ratings between Amazon and Goodreads. I'm just blown away and I'm praying to the Almighty that this streak lasts.

THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB Audiobook

Yes, THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB is now in an audiobook form and will be released on March 31st, 2022.

The narrator I chose was Steve Fortune. I might add he did a fantastic job. As I commonly say, he made me sound like I actually know what I'm doing in this writing gig. His was the first audition to come in and I knew from the first few lines, he was the guy. But, I waited for the auditions to come in, just to give the others a fair shake. While they were all top-notch, what put Steve over the top was his interpretation of Drahm - he nailed it from the start.

After I tried my own hand at narration (a long time ago, well before AlphaProto did my sample chapter), I quickly realized that the way I wrote Drahm made it devilishly difficult to narrate. The fact is, when I wrote Drahm's dialog, I had no genuine idea what type of accent or inflection his words might have. I was really just sort of making his voice up as I went. So, when I went to go narrate him...well...it was a mess.

Steve really brought Drahm alive and his skilled narration, I felt, really breathed life into my work.

We really breezed right through the production process. It felt like Steve churned out the chapters faster than I could keep up. There were some issues here and there, but these got quickly resolved. From start to finish, it took us roughly three weeks.

I'll be releasing an audiobook sample on March 24th. I'm also considering a blog post / video on the cost of making an audiobook.

The Next Book

The next book is done, and I will be starting revisions in April. Revisions is where the magic happens. I've talked about the book enough already.

What I will be doing with the next book, however, is revising my release strategy. I was - literally - flailing in the dark with THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB. I really had no idea what I was doing, and fumbling my way through the process. Next time around, I'll be more meticulous. I want to have the print book, the eBook, and the audiobook release on the same date, as well as get my promo material ready in advance. And now that I have a clearinghouse for my ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) and an established Goodreads account, I'll be able to prep those at least a month in advance of the release.

This is all new to me and I've learned a lot of lessons. I want to bring a quality product to the market for a fair price, as well as establish myself as an author. There are lots of advice videos out there on how to self-publish but the reality is that you can study and plan for months, and still fumble the ball...which is what I kinda did. I'm hoping I can avoid the mistakes I made on THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB with this next book.

Actually, I really can't say I fumbled the ball. But the touchdown wasn't a graceful one.

Short Stories / Abandoned Chapters

Things are going slow with these, and I haven't been inspired to write much this month. All in all, I have three short pieces of fiction done or near-done, with a couple half-finished. Part of this is the amount of time I've spent promoting my book and trying to update the paperback (there is a minor error in the book where one page at the end of Chapter 3 is split across 2 pages). I just discovered this a few weeks ago and I'm actively attempting to update the paperback WITHOUT introducing other nasty surprises in the process. I'm sorry to say, it's taking a frustratingly long time.

Bookmarks and Swag

Recently, I commissioned Gary Shipman (Pakkins Land, Titan Mouse of Might) to draw his interpretation of Halsedric's flaming sword. I intended this drawing to be used for my social media banners as well as a bookmark. Well...the bookmark is done and it looks great. Now all I have to do is figure out what to do with them.

My intention is to use the bookmarks as a bit of a business card. I'd like to provide them as a part of a promotion. The problem is that promotions run smack-dab into sales tax issues. The way the book is distributed via Ingram Spark and Draft2Digital makes it impossible to send them along with a purchase. So, I'm going to have to put my thinking cap on and figure something out.

I'm also considering other forms of swag but I'm not 100% sure as to what I'd want to provide.

In Conclusion

That's it for now. I'm working on a few videos that I intend to release over the coming weeks. I'll start my revision / editing process in April. I'll take all the lessons I learned from THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB and try to improve my release process.

Until next month...

THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB Audiobook Sampler

Narrated by Steve Fortune.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/5b7182_62d6142a2a5644cd9f5cc4b1d7caccea/720p/mp4/file.mp4

Book Trailer: THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB

My book trailer, courtesy of my son.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/5b7182_dfb2fdc075e1495b9718f6472f02ccc8/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Status Update - February, 2022

In a few more days, THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB is available.

Yay.

OK, enough celebrating....

THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB Audiobook

Yep, THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB is going to be available as an audiobook. I have the funds available to do it, and I'm currently discussing details with the voice actor. Seeing that this is the first time I've ever done this, I'm not sure how long it will take. My hope is that I will have something available by the end of May. I'll keep you posted.

I'm really, truly excited about the prospect of THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB in audio.

If you are interested in purchasing THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB - either eBook or paperback - you can find it at the links below:

Amazon Barnes and Noble Apple Kobo Others The "O" Book

After weeks and weeks of saying, "I have about two or three chapters to go," I can report that the rough draft / first draft (whatever you want to call it) is done. I'll probably put it aside for a month to "rest" before I start revisions.

All in all, the final chapters were a departure from my original concept, which is something pretty standard for me. I know the ending has to be tweaked a bit but I managed to get in what I wanted.

The story itself is about a wizard's apprentice that is sent out to deliver a mysterious and potentially dangerous object to a city along the western shore of the region where most of my stories take place. He is escorted by a group of capable mercenaries. This fact, however, doesn't deter a mysterious group from stalking the apprentice, in hopes of capturing him and whatever it is he carries.

The title I've settled on is, "The Wizard Odo." While this was my working title for the project, I've come to enjoy its appropriate message. You'll understand more as you read the book.

The main character - Odo - is of Cathar extraction, which means he's dark skinned. Think "Afro-American." The Cathars and the Oncathars are a culture that I've defined in my Fantasy world, though in previous writings I have done very little with them outside of mention their existence. They show up in the third book of the Frankie Falawell stories (currently under development). Outside of that, I just never did much with them. The Hakan suffer the same fate.

This book is an attempt to bring someone from that culture forward into my writings in a significant way; not just as a background character.

I'm hoping that I can have the revisions done before June, so that my beta readers can have a crack at the story. My sincere hope is that I can have the book on the shelves before December.

Author's note: No, this story won't address issues of racism, or the Black experience in the US. It isn't really my place to discuss these issues, nor is it something that interests me. While the character does have some difficulty in these areas, as it relates to the story and the places where he travels, I don't liken his experience with that of the real world.

A Thank You to my New Subscribers

As some of you are aware, I put out a promo copy of THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB in exchange for subscriptions to my newsletter. I had quite a bit of interest, but only a few people took me up on the offer. Nonetheless, I appreciate all of you who did and I thank you for the interest in my book and any support and encouragement you've provided over the last few weeks.

In the coming weeks, I will send out another newsletter with a list of links where you can write a review for the book. I'll provide more details at a later date.

Still: thank you. I hope the book exceeded your expectations.

Miscellany

I'll be starting my next book fairly soon - maybe late March. Between then and now, I'm going to work on a bunch of short stories that I've started, but haven't yet finished. And I'm looking to clean up some of the chapters from my first attempt with Halsedric. There is some good backstory there that I'll provide, most likely for a fee.

I had a talk with my wife about my overall concept for my writing, and we did a little strategizing. I want to try and monetize the additional "cutting room floor" material from my books, as well as my short stories. My intention was to put those behind a subscription paywall, but my wife had a good point about the weakness of that concept. If I am churning out books, and short stories are a secondary priority, what is the point of a having a monthly or yearly subscription model? Why not just sell these independently on my website?

In short, without a valid roadmap for a subscription service, it very well may mean that my setup on Locals.com is pointless. So, changes in my accessibility and social media presence might be coming in the future.

And that's all for now.

My Guide to Writing Your First Draft

Some helpful hints on writing your first draft.

Well..."helpful" is a relative term, I guess.

https://youtu.be/XYi8bQ7N3ac

Some Art for THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB.

Courtesy of Gary Shipman, of Pakkins Land fame.

https://youtu.be/x7zEjUyG3sc