Jonathan Moeller's Blog, page 177

SEVENFOLD SWORD: TOWER table of contents

I am far enough along in SEVENFOLD SWORD: TOWER to finally share the table of contents!

If all goes well, the book should be out sometime in the first half of November.

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-JM

 

Caina: X meets Y & Audiobook Deal!

Thanks for all the suggestions about how to best describe the GHOSTS series as “X meets Y.”

I think these are my two favorite suggestions:

“Black Widow in the world of Conan the Barbarian.”

And:

“Black Widow meets Gladiator – with magic!”

I think I will try both in ads over the coming weeks and see which performs better.

Now for some good news! If you get the CHILD OF THE GHOSTS ebook on Amazon US, you can get the audiobook for only $7.47. Since the ebook is free, that’s a pretty good deal! And the audiobook is 14 hours long, so if you have Thanksgiving travel coming up, that will make the plane, train, or car ride go much faster.

SEVENFOLD SWORD: TOWER editing underway

In the past 29 days, I’ve written just over 150,000 words.

That means it’s time to start editing SEVENFOLD SWORD: TOWER, which also means it’s time to share the cover image!

If all goes well, the book will be out sometime in November.

[image error]

-JM

 

GHOST IN THE TOWER underway

I wonder when it became mandatory for car dealerships to have giant aquariums of tropical fish in the waiting areas.

I mention that because I wrote the outline for GHOST IN THE TOWER this week while sitting in the waiting room of a car dealership. Traditionally, whenever I need to go in for car repair, I’m working on a GHOST book at the time. Which, granted, is not all that surprising, considering that in the last seven years I’ve written 18 GHOSTS books.

But! I finished the outline for GHOST IN THE TOWER, and I’ve started the book. It will be my side project until SEVENFOLD SWORD: TOWER is all wrapped up, then full speed ahead! Hopefully I’ll have GHOST IN THE TOWER out in December if all goes well.

What will the book be about? I’m glad you asked.

Short answer:

The Magisterium sues Caina!

Longer answer:

Caina needs to find the cause of a series of bizarre suicides.

Finally, the official book description:

Caina has hated the Imperial Magisterium, the Empire’s college of magi, for all her life…and the magi hate and fear her right back.

But the Magisterium has much bigger problems right now, and the First Magus is willing to make a deal. If Caina can find the root cause of a mysterious string of suicides, the Magisterium will leave her in peace.

Except the suicides are actually murders.

And unless Caina is clever, she’ll be the murderer’s next victim…

-JM

Caina & the Ghosts: your opinion needed!

After seven and a half years of marketing books, I’ve found that it works best when I can describe a book in a single phrase as “X meets Y”, where X and Y are both well-known movies or books or games.

For example, I’ve had great success describing FROSTBORN as “WARCRAFT meets THE LORD OF THE RINGS.” Now, if you’ve read the books, you know that isn’t strictly accurate, but it does give you a good thumbnail view of what the book would be about. And if you liked the Warcraft games and you enjoyed THE LORD OF THE RINGS, there’s at least a reasonably good chance you’re going to like FROSTBORN.

For CLOAK GAMES, I’ve had good luck describing it as “THE DRESDEN FILES meets SHADOWRUN.” I didn’t even know Shadowrun existed until after I wrote the ninth CLOAK GAMES book, but once it was pointed out to me, I saw the resemblance. Granted, CLOAK GAMES is only a little like THE DRESDEN FILES and a little like SHADOWRUN. (Unlike SHADOWRUN, there’s no cyberpunk element, probably because the Elves deliberately suppress both information technology and powerful corporations.) But in the “X meets Y” formula, THE DRESDEN FILES meets SHADOWRUN does a really good job of describing CLOAK GAMES in a snapshot.

That said, I’m not sure how to do an “X meets Y” formula for THE GHOSTS.

So, what is your opinion? If you were to make an “X meets Y” comparison for Caina’s books, what would you pick?

-JM

Excerpt Thursday: SOUL OF SORCERY

It’s Excerpt Thursday! This week’s excerpt is from SOUL OF SORCERY. According to the Kindle Popular Highlights feature, this is one of the most popular parts of the book.

I should not for completionists that SOUL OF SORCERY is finally available in paperback, and you can get it at the link!

###

“Why her?” he said at last.

“Molly?” said Mazael. “She is the only child I am likely to have. And…”

Richard frowned. “Not her. Lady Romaria. Why wed her?”

Mazael blinked, surprised.

“Her brother is lord of Deepforest Keep,” said Richard, “yet she brings you no lands, no advantages. She has no powerful allies, and Deepforest Keep is too far to intervene on your behalf in any war. Why then wed her?”

“Because I love her,” said Mazael.

Richard scoffed. “Love? Love is a word, Lord Mazael. Love does not put food in a man’s stomach. Neither does it keep the peace or bring victory in war.”

It was not hard to see why Toraine and Lucan had become the sort of men that they were.

“Perhaps,” said Mazael. “But she has saved my life more times than I can remember, has stood by me in some very dark times.” And she knew the truth about his demon-tainted soul, had kept it from corrupting him at a terrible cost to herself.

And still she had not fled from him.

“So be it,” said Richard.

“Besides,” said Mazael, voice quiet. “Nothing we can do will guarantee peace. War is in the very nature of man.” And Demonsouled, too. “And even if the lords of the Grim Marches lived in perfect amity…a threat would come, one that no one foresaw. Like the Malrags. Or the San-keth. Or some other invader.”

“Nevertheless,” said Richard, “until my strength fails, I will fight to maintain the peace and security of my lands.”

“As will I,” said Mazael.

“Then we are in accord,” said Richard. “Enough of this talk. You mean to ride in the tournament?”

“I do,” said Mazael.

Richard lifted an eyebrow. “A tournament in your own honor, and you ride in it?”

“It would be churlish not to,” said Mazael. “And Romaria will shoot for the archery prize.”

Richard shook his head. “I doubt not her valor, having seen it in the fight against Ultorin’s Malrags, but your wife is a peculiar woman, my lord Mazael.”

Mazael grinned. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

-JM

CHILD OF THE GHOSTS now available in audiobook!

I am very pleased to report that CHILD OF THE GHOSTS is now available in audiobook at Audible, Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon AU, and iTunes., as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy.

I have to admit this is profoundly satisfying because when I wrote CHILD OF THE GHOSTS in 2010, I decided it would be the last novel I would ever write. I was sick of dealing with the publishing industry, and decided my time would be better spent blogging about Ubuntu Linux and other technology topics. Then, of course, I discovered the Kindle, and 8 years later, CHILD OF THE GHOSTS is available in ebook, paperback, and audiobook! (And also the first in a series of 21 novels, 18 of which I wrote after I decided I was done with novels. Man plans, God laughs.)

The ebook, in fact, is free at all ebook stores.

Hollis did a really excellent job bringing Caina, Halfdan, Theodosia, Maglarion, and the other characters to life. (And in additional good news, she’s signed up to narrate GHOST IN THE FLAMES, so we’ll have that in a few months.) So if you have a long car, plane, or train ride coming up, download the CHILD OF THE GHOSTS audiobook to make the trip a little more enjoyable!

-JM

SEVENFOLD SWORD: TOWER rough draft done!

I am pleased to report that the rough draft of SEVENFOLD SWORD: TOWER is finished! 110k words in 25 days.

Next up is UNTITLED SIDE PROJECT, which my newsletter subscribers will get for free when TOWER comes out in November. (It will have a better title by then.) I’ve only got about 19,000 words left to do in UNTITLED SIDE PROJECT, and then full speed ahead on editing TOWER!

I also want to write the outline for GHOST IN THE TOWER today.

-JM

100k words of SEVENFOLD SWORD: TOWER

I’m now 100k words into SEVENFOLD SWORD: TOWER.

And I’m still not done! This is going to be a long book.

SEVENFOLD SWORD reading order and total books

Since SEVENFOLD SWORD: NECROMANCER was a Kindle Daily Deal today, I had a few emails asking how many books there would be in the series, and in what order they should be read.

There are going to be 12 books total. The first 8 are out, and #9 should be out next month if all goes well.

Here’s the reading order:

1.) SEVENFOLD SWORD: CHAMPION

2.) SEVENFOLD SWORD: SWORDBEARER

3.) SEVENFOLD SWORD: WARLORD

4.) SEVENFOLD SWORD: NECROMANCER

5.) SEVENFOLD SWORD: SHADOW

6.) SEVENFOLD SWORD: UNITY

7.) SEVENFOLD SWORD: SORCERESS

8.) SEVENFOLD SWORD: SERPENT

9.) SEVENFOLD SWORD: TOWER (coming November 2018.)

10.) Book #10 (hopefully coming January 2019.)

11.) Book #11 (coming before summer 2019.)

12.) Book #12 (coming before summer 2019.)

The first four books are also in audiobook, and narrated by Steven Brand. They come in two bundles – the first bundle has CHAMPION and SWORDBEARER, and the second has WARLORD and NECROMANCER.

-JM