Jonathan Moeller's Blog, page 144
February 15, 2020
A Brief Excerpt From WRAITHSHARD: SWORD & FLAME
Now that we know what WRAITHSHARD: SWORD & FLAME will be about, let’s have a short excerpt!
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“Valgast tracks,” said Romaria, her voice soft and quiet. “A band of about a hundred of them, heading north. I think they passed this way about two days past, maybe three.”
“Hell,” said Mazael. “Did they tunnel up from the underworld?” The valgasts lived in underground cities far beneath the earth, the nearest of which was Tchroth beneath Skuldar. Since the death of the Old Demon had removed his binding upon the valgasts, who previously had been only able to raid on the surface twice a day, the creatures had grown more aggressive.
“I don’t think so,” said Romaria. “It looks like they came out of the Great Mountains. The tracks headed west before they turned north.” She looked towards the distant wall of the great peaks. “Likely they came out of one of the cavern entrances there.”
“Hell,” said Mazael again. “That’s the last thing we need.”
Romaria shrugged. “Lord Robert is about to marry Guthinga. I suppose for their wedding feast they could split some valgast skulls. You’ve met Guthinga. She would think a row of valgast heads mounted upon spikes would make a lovely wedding gift.”
-JM
February 14, 2020
What will WRAITHSHARD: SWORD & FLAME be about?
On Chapter 11 of 20 of WRAITHSHARD: SWORD & FLAME!
I started writing WRAITHSHARD because I wanted to write something new and put it in Kindle Unlimited. It’s really become commercially necessary to have something in KU, but I didn’t want to pull DRAGONTIARNA, CLOAK MAGE, or GHOST NIGHT off B&N, Kobo, Apple Books, and Google Play.
So, when in doubt, write something new! 
February 11, 2020
The Pulp Writer Show, Episode 14: The Bestselling Books Of 2019
It’s time for Episode 14 of the Pulp Writer Show!
In this week, I talk about my bestselling books of 2019, and what I spent in terms of writerly expenses.
-JM
February 7, 2020
WRAITHSHARD: SWORD & FLAME now underway
Now that DRAGONTIARNA: WRAITHS is out, I’m staring on my next book – WRAITHSHARD: SWORD & FLAME. This is the first book of the “Project Shard” series I mentioned in my writing goals for 2020.
More details on the book to come.
5 chapters down, 15 to go!
-JM
February 6, 2020
DRAGONTIARNA: WRAITHS now available!
I am pleased to report that DRAGONTIARNA: WRAITHS is now available at all ebook stores! You can get it at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon CA, Amazon AU, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play, and Smashwords.
Ridmark Arban is the Shield Knight of Andomhaim, and he has always gone into battle alongside the deadly Third of Nightmane Forest.
But now Third finds herself trapped in a strange new world of deadly magic.
Unless Third learns to master the dangers of this new world, they will destroy her.
Or the Heralds of Ruin will find her and kill her…
-JM
February 5, 2020
coming into focus
I’ve been reading a self-published series of thriller novels, and I just got to the sixth one.
I have to say the improvement along the way has been excellent. I would have rated the first one as “pretty OK” – the story was good, but the characters were somewhat like caricatures and the plot was slightly implausible. Nevertheless, the story was good enough that I kept reading, and by book six all these flaws were gone – the plot is tight and compelling, and the characters are sharply drawn and very human.
The author was pretty good to start with, and improved dramatically. Like a rough image in a telescope coming into focus.
And none of this would have been possible as recently as fifteen years ago – the writer would have gotten on the rejection carousel with various literary agents (many of whom were probably crooks) and the excellent later books in the series would never have been written.
The best anecdote on this topic I heard recently was from a retired FBI agent who decided to start writing thriller novels. During her career, she worked many cases of municipal corruption, and so decided to write about an agent investigating a fictional municipal corruption case. One of the rejections she got from an agent informed her that she needed to do more research, because the FBI never investigated municipal corruption cases.
Yes. The retired FBI agent needed to do more research on the FBI. Truly, the expertise of literary agents is deep and profound.
Needless to say, the retired FBI agent is self-published now.
To return to the original example, in the old days the first book would have been rejected a bunch of times and that would be that. Instead, it has made the author money, it has made Amazon money, and thousands of readers have enjoyed books that would otherwise never have existed.
It is a good time to be a writer!
-JM
Cover image by Ondřej Šponiar from Pixabay
February 4, 2020
The Pulp Writer Show, Episode 13: Overpowered Characters In SF/F
In this week’s episode of the Pulp Writer Show, I answer a reader question about overpowered characters in science fiction and fantasy.
-JM
February 1, 2020
Bestselling Books of 2019
All the numbers are in, so let’s see what my top ten bestselling books of 2019 were!
Not that these are total units sold, not percentages of revenue:
1.) Sevenfold Sword: Maze
2.) Sevenfold Sword: Guardian
3.) Sevenfold Sword: Sovereign
4.) Dragontiarna: Knights
5.) Sevenfold Sword: Tower
6.) Sevenfold Sword: Champion
7.) Sevenfold Sword: Serpent
8.) Malison: Dragon Curse
9.) Malison: Dragon Fury
10.) Dragontiarna: Thieves
Finally, here are how my various series sold over 2019, in terms of percentages of the total number of units sold:
Frostborn: 18.7%
Sevenfold Sword: 29%
Dragontiarna: 4.9%
Malison: 5.9%
Cloak Games/Cloak Mage: 10.16%
The Ghosts/Ghost Exile/Ghost Night: 13.33%
Demonsouled/Mask of the Demonsouled: 2.9%
Cloak & Ghost: 1.31%
The Third Soul: 1%
Tower of Endless Worlds: 0.6%
Silent Order: 3.66%
Nonfiction: 3.8%
Considering that I haven’t actually written a new FROSTBORN book since 2017, it’s nice that it’s still selling so well. Thanks everyone!
-JM
January 31, 2020
running
Today I ran 4.25 miles, which brings me up to a total of 38.25 miles for the month of January 2020.
This is better than January of 2019, where I ran only 31.95 miles. Of course, both are lower than my best month of 2019, where I ran 94.95 miles in June. For some baffling reason, it’s easier to run in June than in January.
January 30, 2020
DRAGONTIARNA and other progress updates
Editing DRAGONTIARNA: WRAITHS. I was hoping to have the book out the first week in February, but mid-February is looking more likely at this point. The perils of writing a really long book!
I am 11,000 words into CLOAK OF ASHES.
I’m trying to find time to work on SILENT ORDER #10, but there are a lot of plates in the air just now.
I am also 11,000 words into WRAITHSHARD: SWORD & FLAME, which is the first book of the WRAITHSHARD series I’m writing as part of my “Project Shard” writing goal I mentioned a few weeks ago. The publishing environment has changed quite a bit in the last two years, so I think it’s time to try something new, and WRAITHSHARD is that. Anyway, SWORD & FLAME will be my main focus once DRAGONTIARNA: WRAITHS is published, and hopefully SWORD & FLAME will come out sometime in March.
More details to come!
-JM
