Jonathan Moeller's Blog, page 246
September 2, 2016
MASK OF SPELLS meets the moths
The DEMONSOULED series has had evil serpent priests and giant spiders, but today in MASK OF SPELLS I’m writing about giant moth creatures.
We had a debate a while back on which animal was creepier, spiders or moths, and then I realized there was no need to choose. In MASK OF SPELLS, we can have the best of both worlds! 
September 1, 2016
Caina vs. Callatas – personal loathing
One of the fun things about writing GHOST IN THE WINDS was that Caina and Callatas had such a level of personal contempt for each other, as especially shown in Chapter 17 of GHOST IN THE PACT.
I don’t think Caina had that with manyof her previous foes. She hated Maglarion, of course, and by the end she came to hate Sicarion as much as she had hated Maglarion. Caina also hated the Red Huntress, but she was also frightened of the Red Huntress, and its hard to feel contempt for someone who terrifies you.
With the Moroaica, by the end Caina felt a twisted sort of respect, mostly because their backgrounds were very similar. The Moroaica was on a centuries-long rampage of revenge, and Caina could understand that on some level.
But Maglarion and Sicarion and Kalgri were all looking out for themselves, without any pretensions to virtue. Callatas, though, insisted that he was making a better world, that he was doing not only the necessary thing but the right thing, and furthermore felt the need to justify himself at length. This absolutely disgusted Caina. Callatas, for his part, thought Caina was an archaism, a fool clinging to an old world, and was infuriated that she couldn’t understand that he was doing the right thing (or so he thought). That meant they couldn’t stand each other on a personal level.
So as a writer, writing their scenes together was great fun!
August 31, 2016
CLOAK GAMES: SHATTER STONE excerpt
A few people asked what CLOAK GAMES: SHATTER STONE will be about, so here are the first few paragraphs of the book:
A mistake caught up to me.
To be blunt, I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but I almost always wriggle out of them.
Some of that is because I’m clever and a very good liar. Some of it is because I have magic, and I know spells that no human is supposed to ever learn. Some of it is because I’m in good shape, and I can run faster than a lot of the things that wanted to kill me. A lot of it is because I always assume the worst is going to happen and prepare for it as thoroughly as I can. That saved my life a lot of times.
Though some of my ability to wriggle out of mistakes – if I’m honest with myself – is because I’m pretty, and I can smile and stand up straight and stick my chest out a little and flirt my way out of trouble.
A pretty smile at the right time can smooth over all kinds of problems.
But not this. Not this mistake. This time, the mistake caught up to me, and there was no way I could avoid it.
It caught up to me on the day I had coffee with my brother’s girlfriend’s grandfather.
Yeah. It was kind of awkward.
-JM
eating the seed corn
As frequent readers know, I strongly endorse self-publishing. That’s why I found this article cited at The Passive Voice interesting. Key quote:
No adult fiction title released in the January-through-June period managed to make the top 20 print bestsellers list in the first half of the year. In the first six months of 2015, two novels released that year, The Girl on the Train and Grey, held the first and third spots, respectively, on the print list and were #1 and #2 on the Amazon Top 20 Kindle E-books List.
I wondered in the past if publishers would have difficulty recruiting talent as more and more writers move to self-publishing. In the short-term that isn’t a problem for the publishers, but in the long-term, it’s hard to be a publisher when no one approaches you to publish stuff.
-JM
August 30, 2016
MASK OF SPELLS writing goals
This week’s writing goals – get to 30,000 words of MASK OF SPELLS, and to 2,000 words of CLOAK GAMES: SHATTER STONE.
-JM
August 29, 2016
GHOST IN THE PACT meets GHOST IN THE WINDS
Sales chart for GHOST IN THE PACT.
If you want to increase sales of a cliffhanger novel…write the sequel!
MASK OF SPELLS progress update
Now entering Chapter 6 of 20 of MASK OF SPELLS.
-JM
August 28, 2016
publishing plans for the rest of 2016
Now that GHOST IN THE WINDS is done, here’s what I’m planning to do for the rest of 2016.
-First, I’m going to finish MASK OF SPELLS. I started it way back in June, but due to reader demand I first wrote FROSTBORN: THE FALSE KING and GHOST IN THE WINDS. I’m on Chapter 5 of 20, and I hope to finish writing that sometime in September or October.
-After MASK OF SPELLS, I will start on FROSTBORN: THE DWARVEN PRINCE, and that should be done before the end of 2016.
-I’m also going to start CLOAK GAMES: SHATTER STONE and work on the book on the side while I finish MASK OF SPELLS and FROSTBORN: THE DWARVEN PRINCE. I think CLOAK GAMES: SHATTER STONE will be the last book I publish in 2016. (Nadia’s dealt with the Elves for the last four books – in this one she will encounter the dwarves.)
Then on to 2017!
-JM
August 27, 2016
GHOST IN THE SEAL now available in paperback
I’m pleased to report that GHOST IN THE SEAL is now available in paperback. Additionally, with GHOST IN THE SEAL, 30 of my novels are now available in paperback form.
Links below!
GHOST IN THE SEAL ISBN-10: 1535026693 / ISBN-13: 978-1533180889
Available at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, and CreateSpace.
-JM
