Jonathan Moeller's Blog, page 114

WRAITHSHARD: SIEGE & STORM available at all stores!

The second WRAITHSHARD book, WRAITHSHARD: SIEGE & STORM, has come out of Kindle Unlimited and is now available at all ebook stores!

You can get it at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon CA, Amazon AU, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, Apple Books, and Smashwords.

If all goes well, I will publish the third book to all stores the week of April 19th, and then the final two books in the weeks after that.

The hordes of the Trichirabi invade the Grim Marches, and Mazael Cravenlock stands in their way.

The Trichirabi have come seeking a shard of the Wraithaldr, the most powerful necromantic artifact ever forged.

Lucan Mandragon once used the Wraithaldr to summon hordes of the undead, and he is desperate to redeem himself.

But the creatures seeking the shard are more than a match for Lucan’s power…

-JM

The Pulp Writer Show, Episode 75: Ten Tips From Ten Years Of Wide Publishing

In this week’s episode, I take a look back at the last ten years of self-publishing, and share ten tips & tricks I have learned for selling books on all platforms.

As always, you can listen to the show on Libsyn, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Amazon Music. You can also listen to it on YouTube:

-JM

GHOST IN THE LORE underway!

Now that DRAGONTIARNA: STORMS is out, my next project is GHOST IN THE LORE! I’m currently 36,000 words into it, which puts me on Chapter 8 of 25.

In this book, Caina finally gets back to the city of Iramis. She’s been trying to get back to Iramis for a while, but imagine how I feel – I wrote GHOST IN THE RING back in 2017, and I’ve been trying to get Caina back to Iramis ever since. Four years!

But we’re finally there.

Of course, Caina thinks that taking the relics of Rasarion Yagar to Iramis will solve a lot of problems.

But there will be complications…

It will also be interesting to spend some time in Iramis. The city has loomed large throughout the GHOST EXILE and GHOST NIGHT series, but in a mythic sense. Especially in Ulkaar, where the valikarion knights and the loremasters are figures of legend. Like, the Ulkaari basically started a religion around the Warmaiden (much to her discomfort) and the fact that Caina has a valikon could command instant respect from most people.

But for all the influence it’s had on the series, we haven’t spent much actual time in Iramis, so it will be interesting to flesh it out a bit more.

Like, a short preview. The Towers of Lore, where the loremasters are trained, is frequently mentioned, but here are the names of the seven actual towers:

1.) The Tower of Time.

2.) The Tower of Divination.

3.) The Tower of Healing.

4.) The Tower of Warding.

5.) The Tower of Summoning.

6.) The Tower of Artificing.

7.) The Tower of War.

And in one more preview, Caina reunites with an old friend:

###

“But she can be stern as well,” said Caina, catching Sophia’s eye. “Razdan Nagrach found that out the hard way.”

Sophia smiled at the compliment.

“Who was Razdan Nagrach?” said Nasser.

“I’ll tell you about him when we exchange news,” said Caina. “Suffice to say he was a Hound of the Iron King who wanted to put Sophia in the Boyar’s Hunt. So she shot him an enspelled crossbow bolt.”

“There was more to it than that,” protested Sophia.

“No doubt. But I rather imagine the rest faded to insignificance in the Boyar’s mind compared to the crossbow quarrel piercing his flesh,” said Nasser.

-JM

Master of Magic – the Community Patch

Today’s post is for all you Master of Magic fans. (From the comments on the last time I talked about Master of Magic, I know you’re out there!)

I’ve been playing Master of Magic with the Community Patch version before I try Caster of Magic, and I have to say the Community Patch improves the enemy AI by a significant degree.

An example: I’m playing a game as Rjak, a master of Death Magic, and I’m currently fighting the enemy wizard Lo Pan, who uses both Chaos Magic and Sorcery Magic. I have complete control of a small continent, but Lo Pan has a much larger continent and population, and I couldn’t get an army across the ocean without his fleet swarming my ships.

Instead, once I had built up my magic power base, I summoned several units of Wraiths, which can fly, and sent them across the ocean and attacked. This proved a highly effective strategy, as Lo Pan’s conventional troops couldn’t stop the Wraiths. I overran about a third of his continent and almost reached his capital city before the AI settled on a counterstrategy for Lo Pan. He cast the Death Ward spell on all of his remaining cities, which meant my Wraiths couldn’t enter them to attack, since they are creatures of Death Magic.

So the war has stalemated. I can’t attack any of his cities at the moment, but my Wraiths can tear up any troops Lo Pan sends to try and retake the conquered territory. What I need to do is have the Wraiths defend the conquered territory long enough for me to build a powerful enough conventional army from the occupied cities, which I plan to use in a decapitation strike on Lo Pan’s capital.

In the original version of the game, the AI wasn’t nearly this clever.

I look forward to trying the Community Patch version with other playstyles.

That was the fun part about Master of Magic, and which it’s still so replayable nearly thirty years later. The sheer number of creatures, units, and spells can combine to create wildly different tactics and playstyles. Like, do you want to play a Life wizard leading an army of dark elves? You can do that! Or a Warlord commanding legions of gnolls? You can do that too!

Of course, since the map is randomly generated with every game, sometimes the most fun games are the ones where you fail catastrophically in the early game due to sheer bad luck.

All this enjoyment, and the base game only takes up 39 megabytes of space on my hard drive.

-JM

DRAGONTIARNA: STORMS now available!

I am pleased to report that DRAGONTIARNA: STORMS is now available! You can get it at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon CA, Amazon AU, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Google Play, and Smashwords.

I should note that the publication of the book was actually delayed a day because of a fence.

Yes, we recently had intense winds, and it blew down an entire panel of the fence. So I had to get some new fence rails, affix them to the posts, and then pry the pickets out of the rotted old fence rails (which I suspect were older than I am) and then attach them to the new rails. That portion of the fence was held together by old nails, but to rebuild it I used stainless steel deck screws. When I was done, that section of the fence was in the best shape it’s ever been, but I had lost an entire day of writing.

But, since DRAGONTIARNA: STORMS hit #1 in its categories on Amazon UK and Barnes & Noble, and #2 in its categories on Amazon US and Apple Books, I don’t think the book was hurt very much by the delay.

Thanks for reading, everyone!

-JM

DRAGONTIARNA: LEGIONS & DEFENDERS now in audio!

I am pleased to report that DRAGONTIARNA: LEGIONS & DEFENDERS, a 2-book audio bundle containing the unabridged audiobooks of DRAGONTIARNA: LEGIONS and DRAGONTIARNA: DEFENDERS, is now available! You can get it at Audible, Apple, Amazon US, Amazon UK, and Amazon AU.

As with SEVENFOLD SWORD and the previous DRAGONTIARNA books, this audiobook was excellently narrated by Steven Brand.

-JM

The Pulp Writer Show, Episode 74: Do Facebook Ads Work For Indie Authors?

In this week’s episode, I take a look at whether or not Facebook ads can still work for indie authors. I also answer reader questions and comments, and discuss the classic PC game MASTER OF MAGIC.

As always, you can listen to the show on Libsyn, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Amazon Music. You can also listen to it on YouTube:

-JM

DRAGONTIARNA: STORMS Table of Contents!

I’m going to take Easter weekend off from the Internet, but before I go, let’s see the table of contents for DRAGONTIARNA: STORMS!

Thanks for your patience! It’s been a long road with this book (with quite a few bumps along the way), but I’m almost to the end.

If all goes well, the book should come out the week after Easter.

Until then, have a happy Easter, everyone!

-JM

sign up for my newsletter and get a free short story!

When I release DRAGONTIARNA: STORMS next month, I’ll give away a free short story to my newsletter subscribers!

The short story will be SHIELD KNIGHT: REBELS, and the plot will be some of the troubles Niall and Moriah faced between the events of DRAGONTIARNA: LEGIONS and DRAGONTIARNA: DEFENDERS. Be sure to sign up today!

-JM

The Pulp Writer Show, Episode 73: Internal Conflict In Storytelling

In this week’s episode, I take a look at the 2014 film CHEF and how it provides an excellent example of internal conflict for writers.

I also answer reader questions and comments, and reveal the title of the final DRAGONTIARNA novel.

As always, you can listen to the show on Libsyn, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Amazon Music. You can also listen to it on YouTube:

-JM