Jonathan Moeller's Blog, page 318

At last! I had some time to play SKYRIM…

…and I got killed by a walrus.

A walrus.

Not by a giant or a dragon. Not even a bear, and to be fair the bears in Skyrim could probably conquer the world, if they felt like it.

A walrus.

Clearly this was God’s way of telling me to get back to work.

-JM

SOUL OF SWORDS progress update

22 chapters and 108,000 words down, 11 and about 50,000-ish words to go. Let’s have a brief excerpt!

“Ah,” said Mazael.

“What is this?” said Riothamus.

“He’s going to invite us to a parley,” said Mazael.

Riothamus nodded. “Like two champions exchanging boasts before a battle.”

“Or,” said Romaria, “like two wolves circling each other before a fight.”

“Or two drunks bellowing at each other before passing out,” said Molly.

Mazael laughed.

That sounded more pleasant than was what to come.

-JM

SOUL OF SWORDS update and solid writing advice

Today was both Earth Day and Vladimir Lenin’s birthday, and I celebrated both these august occasions in my preferred fashion, by eating meat and engaging in private enterprise for profit.

Also, I worked on SOUL OF SWORDS. This post at The Kill Zone has quite a lot of good advice about writing. Key quote:

 I am often asked what the single best piece of writing advice I ever got was, and I always say, Write to a quota. I write six days a week, and take Sundays off. It’s worked for me for over twenty years. Virtually no one can write 5,000 words a day like Gardner. And of course most writers have day jobs and family responsibilities. So the key is to figure out what you can produce and commit to doing that week in and week out.

This is my standard suggestion: Figure out what you can comfortably write per week, given your particular circumstances. It doesn’t matter the number, just find it. Then up that by 10% and divide into six days. Make that your goal. Keep a record on a spreadsheet that tracks your daily writing and turns it into weekly totals. It will give you confidence to see those numbers adding up throughout the year.

Be prepared to give some things up (TV is a jealous mistress, too) in order to find time to write.

I can appreciate that, because as of today I have officially been working on the rough draft of SOUL OF SWORDS for thirty days, and in that time I’ve written 104,000 words (and that was with missing three days for a holiday). In the old days, pulp writers would write to fill the pages of a magazine. In this new era, we pulp writers write to fill the memory of your ereader or tablet – and they can hold a lot of books.

Needless to say, I don’t watch much TV. But there’s hardly anything good on anyway.

-JM

Soul of Tyrants – new cover art

Cover design by Clarissa Yeo.

Here is the new cover art for SOUL OF TYRANTS, the second book in the DEMONSOULED series. Keep watching this space, and you’ll see the new covers for the rest of the DEMONSOULED books, along with the cover for the final book, SOUL OF SWORDS.

-JM

Soul of Swords progress update & excerpt

20 chapters down, 13 to go, and about 95,000 words written of the rough draft.

Here’s an excerpt from this week’s writing:

Riothamus cast a spell, golden fire flaring around his fingers, and disrupted the flow of power around Romaria. The Old Demon’s dark magic was like a river of molten iron, a sea of blazing flame, and Riothamus barely had the strength to sever it.

The blazing sigil flared and went out, and the Old Demon’s glowing eyes shifted to Riothamus.

“The Guardian of the Tervingi,” said the Old Demon. “Do you really think you can challenge me? That staff you bear? I remember the civilization that created it. I remember the great wizards of the High Elderborn, their spells that could turn the seas to land and flatten mountains to valleys. I saw their cities of glass and crystal, their towers that reached into the sky. I saw this, Guardian…and I set their kingdoms to burn, and now all that remains of them is dust, rubble, and a few tribes of painted savages lurking in the trees. Dust…and that little carved stick you bear. And you think to overcome me?”

-JM

Reader Question Day #62 – all about FROSTBORN

This week, we have a bunch of questions about FROSTBORN, the new fantasy series I am planning to start later in the year.

Seraph316 asks:

That was great! I’m really looking forward to this series now! Too bad it will be some time before it comes out. When will the next Frostborn themed “choose your own adventure” start? Anytime soon?

Probably sometime this summer. I want to finish SOUL OF SWORDS first, and go all-in on that book without any other distractions. Doing both a “choose your own adventure” and the rough draft of a novel proves rather more difficult than I expected, alas.

Manwe asks:

1)Ridmark Arban, how did you come up with that name?

For years I’ve been using the name “Ridmark” is various short stories and novel projects that never quite got finished or published. (In fact, I think in ANGEL SWORD AND OTHER STORIES, one of the short stories as a protagonist named Ridmark.) Since I like the name, I wanted to use it.

The name “Arban” came from the French word “arbalest”, which was a kind of crossbow, which was itself derived from a Roman word for a siege engine, “arcuballista.” Since the humans of Andomhaim were all originally descended from Romano-British who fled the collapse of King Arthur’s court (essentially, sub-Roman Britain) for a new world, I wanted most of the human characters to have names that were Latin or Celtic in origin.  I assume Ridmark’s original ancestor was probably an artillery commander in King Arthur’s army.

2)How many books are you planning in this new series?

7 to 16, probably. After I write GHOST IN THE ASHES this summer, I’m going to sit down and write the entire outline for the series, so I know where I’m going and how to get there. Specifically, I want to plot out how many books it’s going to have, and what happens in each of them. I never thought I would have the chance to finish both THE GHOSTS and DEMONSOULED, so as a consequence both series have grown very organically.

So I would like to plan out the entire series thoroughly first.

I think we’ll start off with a bunch of shorter books to introduce the characters and the world, and then wrap up with several longer books.

3)Seeing as this new series will be high fantasy, as opposed to the low fantasy Demonsouled, what differences can we the readers expect to see?

Actually, I think FROSTBORN will start out as sword-and-sorcery, and gradually shift to high fantasy by the time the series ends as the scope of the books expand. I want to capture the feeling of the best computer RPG games, where you start out with a few characters with relatively minor concerns, which by the expands to include the fate of the entire world. DRAGON AGE ORIGINS is a good example of the kind of story arc I would like. In one version of the story, the main character essentially starts out as an impoverished Elvish slum dweller, and by the end of the game his decisions are altering the destinies of nations and kings.

Will there be many fantasy races that make an appearance, elves and orcs already showed up after all. Will it have more of an grand feel to it (low fantasy usually has a smaller scale, high fantasy-grand scale, you know). Etc, etc. That kind of stuff.

High elves, dark elves, orcs, halfings, and probably dwarves will show up, but with their own twists. There will also be new races, like the urdmordar and the taurmanes and the others.

4)Will the new series be out in paperback?

If I can find an economical way to manage it. In other words, if I can find someone to do the layout for me.

5)Will Frostborn have a map?

I will give you a very definite answer of…probably! At the very least I need to sketch myself a map to figure out where I’m going and why. This might be something I hire out, but at the very least I hope to have a simple map here on the website.

-JM

Demonsouled – new cover art

SOUL OF SWORDS is going to be the final volume in the DEMONSOULED series, and to celebrate this milestone, I hired cover designer Clarissa Yeo to do the cover for both SOUL OF SWORDS and new covers for the previous six books in the series.

First up, we have the new cover for DEMONSOULED:

Check back in a few days for the new cover of SOUL OF TYRANTS.

-JM

another milestone for THE GHOSTS

Cover image copyright JC_Design | iStockPhoto.com

I am pleased to report that as of the end of March, GHOST IN THE BLOOD has sold its 5,000th copy. This makes it my 5th novel to have sold over 5,000 copies, following SOUL OF TYRANTS, SOUL OF SERPENTS, SOUL OF DRAGONS, and GHOST IN THE FLAMES.

Thanks everyone!

-JM

two years of self-publishing

On April 15, 2011, I uploaded DEMONSOULED to the various ebook sites, marking my first foray into self-publishing. It’s now been two years, and in that time, I have sold well over 78,000 copies of 38 different ebooks, which has been a tremendous blessing, and for which I thank you all. It’s odd to think that about three years ago, I had basically decided to stop writing novels in favor of my technology blog and occasional short fiction, whether short stories or Choose Your Own Adventures. Now, from a frankly financial perspective, writing fantasy novels is a better use of my time than tech blogging (I have obligations I have to meet) – and I enjoy it more, too.

The fact that the most responsible thing for me to do is also the thing I would most enjoy doing is a particularly rare blessing, and I thank both God and all of you for that opportunity.

What’s interesting is that as I was writing this post, I came across an article by a Salon writing lamenting his unpleasant experience self-publishing. Why is my experience different from this one? Or what did I do that made it possible to sell 78,000 ebooks in two years?

I think it was a combination of a.) sheer dumb luck, and b.) a result of work I did before there were even such a thing as ebooks.

First, I had quite a backlog of work ready to go. I wrote the first two books of the DEMONSOULED series in 2001 and 2005, the first three THE GHOSTS books in 2008, 2009, and 2010, the entire TOWER OF ENDLESS WORLDS series in 2003, THE BLACK PALADIN and THE TOMB OF BALIGANT in the second half of 2004, and the first four novellas of what would become THE THIRD SOUL in 2009. In other words, I had done a lot of the grunt work of learning to write long before the Kindle even came along.

I had only managed to get DEMONSOULED and the first volume of THE TOWER OF ENDLESS WORLDS published, and they had long ago gone out of print, and getting the rights back proved easy. I have 38 different ebooks for sale, but I wouldn’t have been able to do that unless I had spent the last ten years writing.

Second, adapting to ebooks proved easy because I was already quite comfortable with the idea of writing for the Internet. I had been writing my technology blog for years, and that helped me pick up a basic working knowledge of HTML, which came in handy when doing ebook layout. Additionally, my philosophy of blogging came in handy for ebooks. I had always figured it was better to have a 100 posts that each received 5 hits a day rather than one post that got a 100 hits a day, and that carried over to ebooks. None of my books have been runaway best-sellers (except for maybe the Ubuntu book, which has sold 11,500 copies worldwide), but having a book that sells a few copies in many different markets adds up over time.

Third, my “Choose Your Own Adventure” posts were excellent lessons in disciplined writing, since I posted new episodes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for years. Reader trust is a hard thing to gain, but easy to lose, so I tried to make sure I got those episodes up every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. These were excellent lessons in writing discipline and putting my writing time to maximal use. For much of 2011, I had a full-time job, a part-time job, and a number of side writing projects, but I almost always got my Choose Your Own Adventure episode up on time. (And to be fair, one of the times I missed was because I was in the hospital for two days.)

Fourth, I might have written many of my books before 2011, but I haven’t been idle since. In the past two years, I’ve written seven novels – SOUL OF SERPENTS, SOUL OF DRAGONS, GHOST IN THE STORM, SOUL OF SORCERY, GHOST IN THE STONE, SOUL OF SKULLS, and GHOST IN THE FORGE, and I’m about halfway through an eighth, SOUL OF SWORDS. I’ve also written four novellas – THE OUTLAW ADEPT, THE BURNING CHILD, GHOST DAGGER, and THE DRAGON’S SHADOW. If you’re a writer, it’s important to keep the new material coming, and to know when to say a project is “done” and move on to new things.

Fifth, I write in multiple genres – fantasy and technical nonfiction. This, to use business-speak, means a broader customer base. I haven’t done any technical books in a while because I’ve been too busy, but I would like to return to it at some point. Additionally, I would also like to write some science fiction books. Occasionally have the urge to write thriller novels under a pseudonym, but I have too much other work to do first.

Finally, I’ve been willing to experiment and try new things. Both THE GHOSTS and DEMONSOULED started selling a lot better when I upgraded their cover images (more on that later this month). I’ve tried teaching myself new programs for creating and managing ebooks, and I’ve tried new things in fiction. (Like in GHOST IN THE FORGE – I’d never tried writing a relationship like that between Caina, Corvalis, and Claudia.) As I get older, I notice that many people are simply unwillingly to learn new things or to challenge themselves, and react to the possibility that they might have learn something new with sullen resentment at best and unmitigated fury at worst. To be candid, this is both a poor attitude for writing and for life in general. I’ve done some things that failed – my mystery novel SHARE THE PAIN has sold, like, five copies, and my short story collections sell one or two copies a month. I also once got my Ubuntu book pulled from sale on Amazon by accidentally screwing up the edition numbers. But I’ve done things that worked as well, and the failures teach valuable lessons that cannot be obtained in any other way.

To wrap up, if you want to start self-publishing yourself, where to begin? I suggest this book by David Gaughran as a good introduction to the topic.  Hugh Howey, who is rapidly becoming the self-published writer the general zeitgeist knows about thanks to his WOOL books, has a good article on the process of becoming a “writer”, and I think it is good advice for anyone who wants to write, especially the metaphor between being a guitarist who has gigs on the weekend and a writer who pays a few bills via ebooks.

If you’ve read one of my fiction in the last two years, I hope it’s been enjoyable, and if you read one of my nonfiction books, I hope it’s been useful.

-JM

choose your own adventure, episode 22b

You race forward, drawing on Heartwarden’s power, and spring into the air as Gotha kicks at Hamus’s corpse. The dead knight falls free from her barbed legs, and the urdmordar focuses upon you, but it is too late. You slam into her, plunging Heartwarden’s glowing blue blade into her chest.

The blade sinks to the hilt between the crimson chitin covering her breasts.

Gotha rears back and shrieks in pain, her cry ringing inside both your ears and your head. She goes into a mad dance, her legs digging into the earth, and both her clawed hands come up and plunge into your chest and stomach, the talons sinking deep into your flesh. Pain erupts from you, and Gotha shrieks again and flings you away, ripping Heartwarden from her chest.

You land hard upon the ground, blood splashing from the gashes in your side. Gotha convulses once, black ichor dribbling from the gash in her chest, and her glowing eyes meet yours.

“A herd animal,” she whispers. “A herd animal. That’s not…that’s not…”

Then the green glow fades from her eyes and she slumps into a tangled, motionless heap upon the ground.

Everything goes black a moment later, and you feel yourself sinking away…

Then blazing white light fills your vision, and agony wracks your body. You sit up with a gasp, Heartwarden clutched in your right fist, and see Magistrius Richard stooping over you, the white light of a healing spell glimmering around his fingers.

“It worked,” you hear Richard say. “He will not die.”

Strong hands help you to stand. You look at Gotha’s motionless husk, dazed. You faced an urdmordar and lived.

The possibility never crossed your mind.

“Good,” says Ulacht. “Good! He has fought like one of the great orc kings of old!”

You look around and see the villagers hard at work tending to the fires, trying to save what yet may be saved.

“God’s hand was upon us,” says Father Linus. “If you had not come when you did, Sir Ridmark, we would all be slain.”

“Aye,” says Sir Thomas, looking at his father’s corpse. “We have lost much…but we could have lost everything.”

###

After the battle, the men of VICTRIX and the orcs of RZOLDUR went to the mines. There they discovered Gotha’s lair…and the missing human and orcish children wrapped in her webs, drugged and in a deep sleep. Magistrius Richard was able to awake them from their comas, and the children returned to their parents.

SIR HAMUS was buried honorably in the graveyard of Victrix’s church. In later years, his people remembered him not the foolish man seduced by a spiderling, but as the knight who died defending his lands and people from the wrath of an urdmordar.

SIR THOMAS became the new lord of VICTRIX with his father’s death. The village had suffered great harm, but only a few lives had been lost in the fire and the attack of the undead. The men of the Northerland were hardy and resilient, and Thomas vowed that they would rebuild.

ULACHT and FATHER LINUS set aside their quarrel. Both priest and headman had seen firsthand the harm that could result from fighting between man and orc…and how things darker and more powerful than mortal creatures could use such fighting to their own ends. The orcs were free of the urdmordar, and Ulacht would see to it that his people would never be the slaves of the spider goddesses again, whether knowingly or unknowingly.

After recovering from his wounds, RIDMARK ARBAN, Knight of the Soulblade, resumed his journey north, and at last arrived at the court of the Dux of Castra Marcaine.

Already he found that a legend had begun growing around him. Before leaving Tarlion, he had been a young Swordbearer, untried and untested. Now he had faced an urdmordar, aided by only an elderly Magistrius and a few local knights, and triumphed. More, he had even lived!

Few Swordbearers in their Order’s centuries of history could make such a claim.

Once he would have gloried in his new renown, but Ridmark only felt troubled.

The “great culling to come.” What had Gotha meant by that? What had the urdmordar, in the black depths of her evil wisdom, had foreseen?

Would the Frostborn truly return, as she claimed? They had been annihilated by the Swordbearers and the Magistri centuries ago…but could Gotha have foreseen their return?

Ridmark didn’t know, but he intended to find out.

THE END