Jonathan Moeller's Blog, page 173

Did I meet 2018’s writing goals?

Now that the year is almost over, it’s time to look back and see if I met 2018’s writing goals.

1.) Write at least four more SEVENFOLD SWORD books.

I did that! I wrote SEVENFOLD SWORD: SHADOW, SEVENFOLD SWORD: UNITY, SEVENFOLD SWORD: SORCERESS, SEVENFOLD SWORD: SERPENT, and SEVENFOLD SWORD: TOWER, and I’m a third of the way through SEVENFOLD SWORD: MAZE. So instead of four, I wrote five!

2.) Finish the CLOAK GAMES series.

I did! I finished the last two books in the CLOAK GAMES series, CLOAK GAMES: LAST JUDGE and CLOAK GAMES: SKY HAMMER. And, just for the heck of it, I wrote one more beyond the original outline, CLOAK GAMES: MAGE FALL.

And then I wrote three crossover books with Nadia & Caina: CLOAK & GHOST: BLOOD RING, CLOAK & GHOST: LOST GATE, and CLOAK & GHOST: REBEL CELL.

So goal definitely met!

3.) Continue the GHOST NIGHT series once CLOAK GAMES is done.

It took a bit longer since I wrote one more CLOAK GAMES book than planned, but I wrote GHOST IN THE AMULET and GHOST IN THE TOWER this year.

4.) Write two more SILENT ORDER books.

I actually wrote three – SILENT ORDER: MASTER HAND, SILENT ORDER: IMAGE HAND, and SILENT ORDER: ARK HAND.

And I think I might write more. But more on that topic in later posts!

5.) Bring all newly released books out in print.

I mostly did this. I did all of my newly released books except for GHOST IN THE TOWER. Since it came out in December, people wouldn’t be able to actually get it until January, so I’ll make a print edition next week.

Also, funny story. I switched from CreateSpace to KDP Print for my paperbacks. To teach myself how to use KDP Print, I turned my LINUX COMMAND LINE BEGINNER’S GUIDE into a paperback in August, and it turned into my bestselling paperback book of 2018.

6.) Write a million new words of fiction.

Definitely did that! I wrote just about 1.35 million words in 2018.

7.) Audiobooks?

I called this 2018’s stretch goal, but I did waaaaaaaaaaaaaay more with audiobooks in 2018 than I planned. Originally, I just planned to announce the release of the SEVENFOLD SWORD books from Podium when they came out, and SEVENFOLD SWORD PART I (containing CHAMPION and SWORDBEARER) came out in February and SEVENFOLD SWORD PART II (containing WARLORD and NECROMANCER) came out in August. Part III (containing SHADOW and UNITY) will come out on January 8th. That was all I wanted to do with audiobooks in 2018. Doing them myself would be too much hassle. Who needs hassle?

But! Man plans, God laughs, yeah?

In August I discovered that because of changes in both my business structure and US tax law, it was suddenly a really good (and urgent!) idea for me to do some self-published audiobooks. So before the end of 2018, I had CHILD OF THE GHOSTS and GHOST IN THE FLAMES excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy, and FROSTBORN: THE DARK WARDEN excellently narrated by Brad Wills. (FROSTBORN: THE GORGON SPIRIT just wrapped up, and should be out next month.) I’m really happy with how they turned out, and am looking forward to doing more in 2019.

So, by the end of 2018, 7 more of my books were in audio! That was a stretch goal that definitely stretched.

SEVENFOLD SWORD: MAZE progress update

My internal monologue over the last few days has been like this:

Don’t eat another Christmas cookie.

Don’t eat another Christmas cookie.

Don’t eat another Christmas cookie.

(Eats cookie.)

Okay, don’t eat this Christmas cookie…

But! The holidays are over, and it’s back to writing! I’m on Chapter 8 of 24 of SEVENFOLD SWORD: MAZE.

-JM

GHOST IN THE FLAMES now in audiobook!

I am very pleased to report that ten years after I wrote it, GHOST IN THE FLAMES is now available in audiobook, as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy!

You can get the audiobook at Audible, Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon AU, and iTunes.

But what about the first book in the series, you might say? Fear not! You can also get CHILD OF THE GHOSTS at Audible, Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon AU, and iTunes.

-JM

Merry Christmas 2018!

Merry Christmas!

It’s time to take a few days off for Christmas. I had wanted to get to 30,000 words of SEVENFOLD SWORD: MAZE, by the time Christmas Eve came around, but I actually got to 34,800, so doing well! (6 chapters down, 18 to go!)

Back to work in a few days. Meanwhile, I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

-JM

Interesting Links #27: Ultimate Doom!

The final Interesting Links post of 2018! This week we have articles about self-publishing and computer games.

-I agree with this post. Be wary of traditional publishers! Stay Away From Traditional Book Publishing.

-This is an old article, but I like its description of Lois McMaster Bujold’s journey to self-publishing due to the ineptitude of traditional publishers. Lois McMaster Bujold Answers Three Questions about Self-Publishing.

-I use BookBub Ads a lot for book advertising, and this article offers some good advice on using the platform. Clever Ways Authors Are Using Bookbub Ads.

-If you use Findaway Voices to produce an audiobook, you’ll now get 45% of the sale price from Apple, while ACX only offers 40%. Your Audiobook On Apple Books.

-It seems like Microsoft is starting to add upgrades to the Notepad app in Windows. (I do use Notepad all the time to scrub formatting from text when copying and pasting between applications.) Latest Windows Insider build makes a major upgrade to, uh… Notepad.

-DOOM is now 25 years old! DOOM Changed the Game 25 Years Ago

-This is an interesting article about how Steam might finally have a viable challenge in the form of Epic’s new game store. (Though I do use GOG Galaxy a lot and like it.) Steam And Epic Are In A Game Store Battle, And Players Win.

-It’s the 20th anniversary of Baldur’s Gate! Actually played some Baldur’s Gate this weekend. 20 Years Ago, Baldur’s Gate Made Dungeons And Dragons Cool Again.

-JM

book marketing DIY

I read a post from a writer lamenting how much marketing he has to do.

I don’t get that, because I have exactly the opposite attitude. I really like doing my own marketing. Most of the time, the various dashboards involved have graphs and charts and spreadsheets so you can see exactly how well everything is doing. And you don’t even have to talk to people most of the time.

Christmas travel audiobooks!

Like millions of other people this December, you might find yourself traveling for Christmas. Alas, holiday travel is often the worst – the freeways are crowded, the airports are overflowing, the trains are jammed, the drivers are inept, and no matter where you go, there seems to be a child having a very loud meltdown. (The child would have sensibly preferred to remain home at Christmas!)

Fortunately, audiobooks can make the holiday travel experience much more enjoyable. And I have audiobooks available from three of my series!

The first six of the FROSTBORN books are now in audiobook, for a combined total of over 60 listening hours. That will be long enough to cover nearly any holiday travel scenario! Additionally, the seventh book FROSTBORN: THE GORGON SPIRIT will be coming out in early 2019.

Also, the first four SEVENFOLD SWORD books are available in audio (in two 2-book bundles), for a combined listening length of over 42 hours.

Finally, CHILD OF THE GHOSTS, the first book of the GHOSTS series, is just under 14 hours long. Even better, GHOST IN THE FLAMES is nearly done, and should come out any day now. So if you have a long enough round trip, you could listen to CHILD OF THE GHOSTS on the way there, and then GHOST IN THE FLAMES on the way back.

-JM

 

Jonathan Moeller vs. Time Travel!

A reader emailed to ask why I’ve never written a story about time travel.

I have to admit that I don’t particularly care for time travel as a plot device. It seems to yank out a lot of the tension from a story. Like, the best way to make really interesting characters is to to have them make moral choices and live with the consequences of those choices. But if a character can travel back in time and undo the choice, then was it really a choice? It’s like reloading a saved computer game. The consequences aren’t really all that severe if you can undo them.

There have been time travel stories I liked. I think the key is consequences for the characters, and both a severe price for using time travel and logical rules governing its application. Like, in Stephen King’s 11/22/63, time travel is a key plot element, but it has a severe price. Every time you make a change in the past, it creates a parallel timeline you remember, and if you have too many parallel timelines in your head, you go insane. And the past itself is highly resistant to change, and if you try to make big changes, like saving JFK, the timeline tries to stop you by killing you through bad luck, to the point that a piano might drop on your head as you walk past a building.

So, it’s possible to do a good time travel story, I just don’t have any interest in attempting to write one.

That said, while I haven’t used time travel in my books, I have used time dilation several times. Time dilation is the idea that time passes at different rates depending on the vantage point of the observer. Like in the movie INTERSTELLAR, where one hour spent near a black hole means that seven years pass on Earth. The idea of time dilation has been fairly conclusively proven in physics, and it’s an idea older than modern science. Think of the Celtic stories of a man spending one night inside an elf-mound and a century passes for the rest of the world.

I’ve used time dilation in FROSTBORN, CLOAK GAMES, and GHOST EXILE (specifically GHOST IN THE INFERNO), and I like the idea enough that I’ll probably use it again at some point.

-JM

 

SEVENFOLD SWORD: MAZE underway!

I am pleased to report that I am now writing SEVENFOLD SWORD: MAZE! Now on Chapter 1 of 24.

I didn’t get much done yesterday, since I spent most of my writing time using WD-40 and a wrench to unscrew some very rusted bolts from some equally rusted nuts, but all the bolts are unscrewed and it’s full speed ahead on SEVENFOLD SWORD: MAZE!

I would like to get the book out in January, but since the Christmas holidays are coming up it might slip to February.

-JM

CLOAK & GHOST: REBEL CELL question & answer!

For a book that I gave a way for free, I sold a lot of copies of CLOAK & GHOST: REBEL CELL. Thanks everyone!

I’ll answer some questions people had about the book here. Spoilers alert!

JLH asks:

“Curious though how Nadia is supposed to function as a shadow agent for the queen when she is so well known.”

With the Cloak, Mask, and Occlusion spells, Nadia can be as unobtrusive as she likes. Also, she’s not a very large woman, so all she really needs to do is put on a big coat, a ball cap, and sunglasses, and she’ll immediately look non-threatening to most people. The High Queen usually recruits shadow agents with a variety of different skill sets, but with Nadia she has someone who can be a scalpel or a hammer as needed.

Also, Nadia is only a certain level of famous. Like, the governor of a smaller US state level of famous. (Or a backbencher MP, for those of you from countries with Westminster-style governments.) Like, I have no idea who the governor of New Jersey is at the moment. But within a certain circle of people, the governor of New Jersey is very well known and influential. But if you’re outside of that circle of people and you met the governor of New Jersey, like you saw him in line at McDonalds or something, you’d have no idea who he was. Nadia’s about that level of famous. She was on the national news for a while, but the news cycle does move on.

“Also looking forward to seeing her interact with more human wizards. Wonder what they think of her?”

Nearly all the other human wizards are part of the Wizard’s Legion and personally sworn to the High Queen. (The Wizard’s Legion is one of the hammers she uses to keep the Elven nobles in line.) A human wizard meeting Nadia would first be frightened when he or she realized how strong Nadia was, and then would suspect that she was either an Inquisition agent or one of the High Queen’s scalpels or hammers.

Matthew asks:

“Question though, what was the point of Markus?”

I want to do more with the Shadow Hunters as a organization further down the road, but the only members of the Family Nadia had met so far have been Riordan, Nora, and Adler. So it was time to start introducing more of them.

“Or was he just there to give me a sense that Shadow Hunters are apparently attracted to slightly insane females?”

LOL. That would be Riordan. As Nora points out to him (repeatedly), he does have a type. Both his previous long-term relationships tried to kill him, which is why he took things so slowly with Nadia. Markus was just being charming.

Nadia would be attractive, but the longer you talk to her, the more apparent it would be that there’s something…off about her, to the point where it’s off-putting and unsettling. Like, people who look into her eyes usually have to look away first, she’s hyper-vigilant about her surroundings, that kind of thing. Caina has much better poise, and it much better at controlling her emotions. The flip side of that is Nadia tends to boil over and lose her temper and be fine after, while Caina internalize emotions and deal with them by doing things like overthrowing governments.

Anyway! CLOAK & GHOST: REBEL CELL was a good warmup for CLOAK OF DRAGONS, which I should be able to start writing in January.

-JM