Jonathan Moeller's Blog, page 351
April 25, 2012
I am Andromache
I am Andromache, the High Seat of House Kardamnos and one of the nine Archons of the Assembly, the ruling body of New Kyre. I am one of the most powerful and influential women among the Kyracian nation. I led my House back from the brink of ruin, I destroyed those who murdered my parents, and I have crushed every enemy I have ever faced.
It is not enough to protect my family.
I am a stormsinger, a wielder of the sorcery of wind and wave. I can conjure tornadoes and command the wrath of the storm, I can turn water to ice with a glance, and I can call down the lightning to rip my enemies asunder.
But it is not enough. I must have more power. Enough power to make House Kardamnos preeminent among the Houses of New Kyre, enough power to ensure that no one ever dares to lift their hand against my family again.
And I know where to find that power.
I will bring the storm of war to the shores of the Empire.
And in return, my true master will reward me with dark power beyond imagining.
Click here to read an excerpt from GHOST IN THE STORM.
Buy at Amazon.com, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.
April 23, 2012
the decline of publishing
From the blog of the The Superversive, a very entertaining parable about the decline of the large publishing establishment.
I think it’s pretty much spot-on. The publishing industry was designed to do one thing – distribute physical books and make a profit. Ebooks make distribution way easier and cheaper. If you can distribute your books yourself via the various epublishing platforms and keep 70% of the sales price (before taxes), then why go with a big publisher and keep 25% of the ebook net price (before taxes)?
I can’t think of a reason. At least not for me – I’m sure others have their own. But for me, unless there’s a dump truck full of $100 bills involved, it’s better to self-publish.
I get mentioned in the follow-up post.
-JM
April 22, 2012
GHOST IN THE STORM – the table of contents
For the curious, here is the Table of Contents for GHOST IN THE STORM, which will be coming very soon:
Chapter 2 – Lightning
Chapter 3 – The Fall of the Great Market
Chapter 4 – Retreat
Chapter 5 – Storm Dance
Chapter 6 – Hunters
Chapter 7 – A Severed Hand
Chapter 8 – Raiders
Chapter 9 – Disciple of the Moroaica
Chapter 10 – Walls of Flame
Chapter 11 – Veterans
Chapter 12 – A Stormsinger’s Wrath
Chapter 13 – The Outcast
Chapter 14 – First Spear
Chapter 15 – The Price of Power
Chapter 16 – Sacrifices
Chapter 17 – Sortie
Chapter 18 – Ice Dance
Chapter 19 – Rescue
Chapter 20 – Infiltration
Chapter 21 – Treachery
Chapter 22 – I Am A Blacksmith
Chapter 23 – Balarigar
Chapter 24 – Last Stand
Chapter 25 – The Fall of the Citadel
Chapter 26 – Dead Men
Chapter 27 – The Tomb of Scorikhon
Chapter 28 – The Promise of the Moroaica
Chapter 29 – The Champion of Marsis
Epilogue
-JM
April 21, 2012
Reader Question Day #20 – magic and Amazon
Manwe asks:
It’s Amazon where you sell most of your books right?
Yes. I generally sell about 60% of my books at Amazon, with the remaining 40% coming from Barnes & Nobles, iTunes, and the Sony eBookstore. So it’s unlikely I will ever do Kindle Select – I have quite a few readers with Nook devices, and I have no wish to spurn them.
When you read, do you concentrate on one book at a time, or more scattered like myself?
Generally, I prefer to read one book at a time. Sometimes I will alternate between two different books at once. I have the Kindle app on my MP3 player (a Samsung Galaxy Player which I basically use as a PDA), and if I find myself waiting in line or whatever, I’ll fire up the Kindle app and start to read something.
Sometimes I’ll read a fiction book and a nonfiction book simultaneously, and alternate between them.
Istarinmul (a city in the world of THE GHOSTS), does that have any relation to the historical Byzantium/Constantinople/Istanbul?
A bit. It used to be an independent kingdom called Starifel, but the Empire conquered it. Then the Shahenshah of Anshan conquered it, and part of their royal family revolted and seized the city and its surrounding provinces for themselves. Hence, the Padishah of Istarinmul and his Immortals.
The Istarish turn up quite a bit in THE GHOSTS books, since Istarinmul is the center of the worldwide slave trade, and the slavers’ brotherhood is quite powerful and wealthy. Caina really, really doesn’t like slave traders, and has absolutely no qualms about killing every single one she can reach.
ivy asks (concerning the depiction of magic in SOUL OF DRAGONS):
You seem To understand some elements of magic that others do not , was that just good research or was There more to it?
I basically made up all the elements of magic in the DEMONSOULED series from whole cloth. It’s more influenced by the fact that I’ve been playing computer games since I was 12 than by any sort of real-world magical practice.
-JM
April 20, 2012
Worlds to Conquer
I got the rights to one of my books back from a publisher today (official letter and everything), and I am as excited by this as I was when they bought the rights back in 2004, and I am in fact more excited than I would be if another publisher appeared out of the blue and offered to buy the rights.
This isn’t to knock small publishing or traditional publishing or whatever. I am just marveling at how different my own thinking is – I spent a lot of 2000 to 2011 trying to find publishers, and now I am delighted to have gotten my book rights away from one.
Truly, things have changed.
I’ll talk a bit more about this in a few weeks.
-JM
April 19, 2012
World of THE GHOSTS – the Ghosts of the Empire
There are no Ghosts. Everyone of any sense agrees upon that. The Ghosts are only a story told to thrill children. Or an tale used by fools to excuse their failures. Far easier to blame a defeat upon the Ghosts lurking in the shadows than one’s own idiocy.
And yet…
Those who know of such things whisper about the Ghosts, the Emperor’s spies and assassins. They say that every city and every town has its Ghost circle, a cell of informants who pass on secrets to their superiors and to the Emperor. They talk about the Ghost nightfighters, the elite agents of the Ghosts, masters of stealth and disguise.
A curious story persists about the Ghosts. The Ghosts, the tale goes, believe themselves the defenders of the Empire’s commoners, their champion and shield. The Ghosts only support the Emperor because he is the commoners’ strongest guardian against the avarice of the nobility, the greed of slave traders, and the black sorcery of the magi. If the Emperor ever turned against the commoners, the story claims, the Ghosts would arrange his death.
And for all their skill at remaining secret, an even stranger story circulates about a single Ghost nightfighter.
A woman.
This woman, they say, has defied a pyromancer of fearsome power and even more fearsome madness, has thrown down rebel lords and freed slaves from their fetters. This woman has even saved the Imperial capital itself, snatching a million men, women, and children from the jaws a horror wrought of ancient necromancy.
But it is all just a story, and a foolish one at that. Everyone with any sense knows that the Ghosts are only a myth.
-JM
April 18, 2012
if you survived tax day, treat yourself to some free books
If you live in the US, you just gone done paying your taxes (or you’re frantically filing for an extension, or preparing to flee to Mexico under an assumed name). And tax day might have stung a bit and put a crimp on your budget, forcing you to cut back on entertainment items like books.
Fortunately, I’ve got you covered with some free books.
DEMONSOULED is the first novel of my DEMONSOULED series (four books so far, with two or three more planned), sword-and-sorcery tales chronicling the adventures of the knight Mazael Cravenlock as he wages war against serpent men, inhuman invaders, dragons, and other creatures. You can get it for free at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Smashwords, and also at Amazon.co.uk.
CHILD OF THE GHOSTS is the first book of my THE GHOSTS series, about the adventures of Caina Amalas, an elite spy and assassin who fights rogue sorcerers, slave traders, corrupt lords, and anyone else who threatens to overthrow the Empire of Nighmar. (I’m almost done with GHOST IN THE STORM, the fourth book of the series.) CHILD OF THE GHOSTS is available for free at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Smashwords, and also at Amazon.co.uk.
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THE TESTING is the first novella in “The Third Soul” series, about Rachaelis Morulan, an apprentice mage in the corrupt Conclave of Araspan. It’s free at Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Smashwords.
Hopefully, these free books will take a bit of the sting out of tax day.
-JM
April 17, 2012
World of THE GHOSTS – the Imperial Magisterium
Scholars say that the power of the Empire rests upon four legs. The authority of the Emperor, the wealth and power of the nobility, the might of the Legions…
…and the sorcery of the Imperial Magisterium, the magi of the Empire.
The Magisterium governs the use and practice of sorcery (or the “arcane sciences”, as the magi like to say) throughout the Empire. The headquarters of the magi is the Magisterium’s great Motherhouse in the city of Artifel, but the magi maintain chapterhouses in each of the major cities and many of the larger towns. And every noble and every Imperial magistrate has his advisor from the Magisterium, and each of the Legions has a detachment of battle magi.
The Magisterium governs the magi strictly. Necromancy, blood sorcery, pyromancy, oneiromancy, summoning non-elemental spirits, violating the mind of another without the writ of an Imperial magistrate, and numerous other crimes are all punishable by death. At least in theory – in practice, the high magi and the preceptors of the chapterhouses are often too willing to look the other way. There are rumors of secret factions within the Magisterium devoted to practicing forbidden arts, of hidden schools and secret orders.
And many of these restrictions are recent. During the Fourth Empire, the magi ruled the Empire openly, and did as they pleased, using the blood of slaves to fuel mighty necromantic spells.
And many of the magi would like to see those days return…
April 16, 2012
GHOST IN THE STORM, the first chapter
I’m making good progress on GHOST IN THE STORM, so that means it’s time to share the first chapter of the book. (Note that the chapter has spoilers for the ending of the previous book in the series, GHOST IN THE BLOOD.)
The first line of GHOST IN THE STORM:
Caina saw the dead sorceress standing in the center of the room.
-JM
April 15, 2012
year one
One year ago today, I uploaded my book DEMONSOULED to Kindle Direct, PubIt, and Smashwords. It was a bit of an experiment. I wanted to see what would happen. I expected I would sell maybe 12 copies and that would be that.
Now, a year later, I have 18 different ebooks uploaded, and have sold about 20,500 copies of those books.
Thanks, everyone. Books and publishing are entering a wild and crazy new world, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes.
-JM
