Jonathan Moeller's Blog, page 116

100,000 words of DRAGONTIARNA: STORMS!

My goal had been to reach 90,000 words of DRAGONTIARNA: STORMS by the end of the week, but I’m pleased to report I reached 102,000 words, which puts me on Chapter 21 of 28.

Not sure how much longer it will be. Between 20,000 to 40,000 more words, but I think a length range somewhere around 130,000 words seems to most likely.

-JM

The Soundtrack of 2020 – in praise of BATTLE BROTHERS

I think the favorite music I listened to in all of 2020 was the soundtrack for BATTLE BROTHERS.

BATTLE BROTHERS, if you aren’t familiar with it, describes itself as a “tactical RPG set in a low-power fantasy world.” Basically, it’s like Glen Cook’s THE BLACK COMPANY, and your mercenary company travels around the world map fulfilling contracts and fighting bandits, monsters, orcs, and the occasional necromancer. I bought the game a while back and still play it regularly, and I also bought the soundtrack and added it to my iTunes library.

I always remember WRAITHSHARD as the series I wrote entirely during during the pandemic, and the main theme of Battle Brothers was how I often got into the mood when starting a writing session on one of the five books of WRAITHSHARD. The main theme, in particular, makes me think of Lucan Mandragon – it starts of weary and melancholy, but there’s more resolve towards the end, though the melancholy never quite goes away.

And, of course, Adrenaline Rush from the game would have to be the unofficial theme of the Tervingi barbarians in the DEMONSOULED series, and I listened to that quite a bit while writing the final battle at the end of WRAITHSHARD: SIEGE & STORM.

Finally, I think the favorite sequence I wrote in all of 2020 was the Battle of Shadow Crown Hill in DRAGONTIARNA: DEFENDERS, since it was such a massive train wreck as Ridmark’s, Merovech’s, the Theophract’s, and Third’s plans all crash into one another at high speed. According to my iTunes library, I listened to the “Rise & Fall Of House Kaltenborn” like 250 times while I was writing that sequence.

It seems like 2020 actually started in March, and it’s been a year now, which I confess has put me in an uncharacteristically reflective mood. But whatever the future brings, I will always remember WRAITHSHARD as the series I wrote during the pandemic, and BATTLE BROTHERS as the soundtrack to the year.

Naturally, I think you should try the game, and enjoy its soundtrack.

-JM

Project Upgrade: AVENGING FIRE

It’s been a month since I published AVENGING FIRE, my bonus 11th writing goal for 2021, so let’s see how it did.

The idea came from regular reader William, who asked:

“I just read Share the Pain and I enjoyed it. It seems like a shame that it is left orphaned on Kindle with no link on your website. Anyway, I was curious if you have ever considered incorporating it into your greater body of fantasy novels by using it as the basis for a prequel to Cloak Games? It struck me early on that the year and the tone of the story would fit the tidbits about the last days of the US government and the elven invasion that were revealed in Last Judge. Also the familiar-sounding Irish names like Cormac.”

First, what was SHARE THE PAIN?

SHARE THE PAIN was originally a mystery novel I wrote fifteen or sixteen years ago. I self-published it back in 2011 when I started with self-publishing, but it never really took off because I didn’t know how to market it. (To be fair, when I started in 2011, I didn’t know how to market anything.) Eventually I made DEMONSOULED permafree, and that took off, so fantasy became my focus. SHARE THE PAIN just sort of sat there while I wrote other things, and my focus was on fantasy. The cover of SHARE THE PAIN, as you can see from the graphic above, was pretty weak, and I never bothered to do anything to upgrade and market it. It sold one or two copies a year, and that was that.

In answer to William’s question about CLOAK GAMES, I don’t really like doing prequels. It feels a bit like procrastinating instead of getting on with the main story, you know? Like, imagine that you have to mow the lawn, and you set out to do it, but first you decide to organize the contents of your garage, and the lawn remains unmowed. Writing prequels feels a bit like organizing the garage when the lawn needs mowing. I suppose some of my short stories are prequels, but I view those more like “bonus scenes” on the DVD, extra material that my newsletter subscribers get for free.

But one of the positive things to come out of 2020 (there were some!) was that I really upped my cover design skills. I started to wonder how SHARE THE PAIN would do if I renamed it and republished it with a new cover and modern formatting. It seemed like a worthwhile experiment, so I unpublished SHARE THE PAIN, renamed it AVENGING FIRE, and made the cover you can see in the graphic above. On February 1st, I republished it and sent it out to my newsletter.

How did it do?

I am pleased to report that in one month, AVENGING FIRE sold two and a half times as many copies as it did over the previous ten years. Here’s how it broke down by platform:

Amazon: 75%

Barnes & Noble: 5.9%

Kobo: 8%

Apple: 4.2%

Google Play: 4.5%

Smashwords: 2.1%

So what conclusions can we draw from this adventure?

I am definitely going to write a sequel, probably sometime this summer. I think after I finish the DRAGONTIARNA and GHOST NIGHT series, a mystery novel would be just the thing to clear my head after writing two conclusions to long and complex epic fantasy series like DRAGONTIARNA and GHOST NIGHT.

This might also finally solve my Kindle Unlimited problem. I’ve taken almost all my books out of Kindle Unlimited, and WRAITHSHARD: SWORD & FLAME should come out of Kindle Unlimited on March 21st-ish, which the rest of the series following soon thereafter. Usually my books sell around 60 to 65% of their copies on Amazon, not 75%. (And for older books like CLOAK GAMES: FROST FEVER or SILENT ORDER: WRAITH HAND, sometimes they only sell like 45% of their monthly copies on Amazon.) If the ratio for AVENGING FIRE continues through March, I might in the future keep all my fantasy and science fiction available on all platforms but sell mysteries through Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. But we’ll see what the March numbers are actually like before I make up my mind.

Finally, thank you all for reading! AVENGING FIRE was outside of my usual genres, so I’m glad so many people read and enjoyed it.

-JM

The Pulp Writer Show, Episode 70: How To Write A Novel

In this week’s episode, I discuss my book STORYTELLING: HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL, which offers tips & tricks for writing a novel based upon the rules of story structure.

I also answer questions and comments from readers about DEMONSOULED, DRAGONTIARNA, and AVENGING FIRE.

STORYTELLING: HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL is now available at all ebook stores.

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 update

Now on Chapter 16 of 28 of DRAGONTIARNA: STORMS. Progress has been slow but nonetheless steady, and I’m hoping to finish the week at 90,000 words of the rough draft or higher if possible.

I’m not sure how long the rough draft will end up, but 120,000 words seems reasonable.

Time to write some scenes with our friends the Heralds of Ruin, who we really haven’t heard from since DRAGONTIARNA: CROWNS!

-JM

Chef

I wound up watching CHEF this weekend.I quite liked it! It’s about a chef named Carl Casper who’s increasingly unhappy with his work. After he gets fired over a Twitter war with a writer who criticized his cooking, Carl is out of options, so he starts a food truck, and has to both rediscover his love of cooking and reconnect with his ex-wife and ten year old son.In STORYTELLING: HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL, I talked about the different kinds of conflict, and Carl’s conflict is an excellent example of an entirely internal conflict. The critic is an external enemy but he is basically the inciting incident – Carl’s real enemy is his own internal conflict about art vs commerce, and his strained relationship with his son.I recommend the movie. It was rated R for bad language, but there’s no nudity or explicit sexual content, and honestly if you’ve ever worked in a restaurant kitchen or a warehouse, you’ve heard much worse. The movie also has an extremely valuable lesson – stay off Twitter when you’re angry!:)-JM

GHOSTS audiobook sale!

It took like five weeks, but I’ve finally gotten THE GHOSTS and the GHOST EXILE audiobooks uploaded to all retailers, which means you can get them at Google Play, Chirp, and Scribd now.

That means it’s time for a sale! You can currently get CHILD OF THE GHOSTS for $0.99 at Google Play and Chirp. So if you’re looking for a nice long listen for the weekend, I’ve got you covered.

-JM

Storytelling: How To Write A Novel

I occasionally get asked for writing advice, so I decided to write a book on the topic! You can now get STORYTELLING: HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon CA, Amazon AU, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Google Play, and Smashwords.

Want to learn to write a novel? This is the book for you!

The key to writing a good novel is to tell a good story, and this book will show you how to tell a good story in novel form. We’ll look at all the important parts of a satisfying story structure:

-The introduction. How to set the stage for your book.

-The conflict and the inciting incident. All stories revolve around conflict, and the more emotionally significant the conflict, the better.

-Rising action. Your characters need to take action to resolve their conflict, and they will experience setbacks and failures.

-The climax. The more significant the conflict, the more powerful its climax and resolution.

-The resolution. We see how the conflict and its resolution have changed the characters.

Finally, this book complains a complete annotated copy of the author’s novel SILENT ORDER: IRON HAND to provide an example of a novel that follows the rules of story structure.

From the introduction to the resolution, STORYTELLING: HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL will show you how to write a compelling novel of your own!

-JM

DRAGONTIARNA ebook and audiobook progress

Passed the 60,000 word mark of DRAGONTIARNA: STORMS, which puts me on Chapter 13 of 28.

Also! DRAGONTIARNA: LEGIONS & DEFENDERS, a two-book audio bundle containing the audiobooks of DRAGONTIARNA: LEGIONS and DRAGONTIARNA: DEFENDERS, will be coming out from Podium on April 6th, as excellently narrated by Steven Brand.

You can see the cover image below.

-JM

GHOSTS and GHOST EXILE out of Kindle Unlimited

THE GHOSTS and GHOST EXILE ebooks are out of Kindle Unlimited on back on all wide platforms again, and (almost) all of the audiobooks are wide. I’m hoping to take the last few audiobooks wide this week.

Of course, now that the books are wide again, I need to advertise them.

For every $1 I’ve spent on Bookbub ads with this image, I’ve gotten $2 back, so that is off to a good start! Of course, the Caina books aren’t anything like Throne of Glass or Game of Thrones on anything but a superficial level (swords! wizards! assassins!), but the best ad formulations always go “if you like X and Y, then you’ll love Z!” And it’s hard to argue with $2 back for every $1 spent.

-JM