Jonathan Moeller's Blog, page 40

10k word day!

I am very pleased to report that I wrote 10,000 words of CLOAK OF TITANS today, which marks my fourth 10k word day of 2024.

This also puts me at 53,000 words into the rough draft of the book.

-JM

The Pulp Writer Show, Episode 197: Payhip vs Shopify For Indie Author Direct Sales

In this week’s episode, we take a look at direct selling for indie authors, and compare the pros and cons of Payhip and Shopify as platforms for selling direct. You can listen to the full show with transcript at the official Pulp Writer Show site.

-JM

Coupon of the Week, 4/22/2024

Once again it is time for Coupon of the Week!

This coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of DRAGONSKULL: BLADE OF THE ELVES (as excellently narrated by Brad Wills) at my Payhip store:

SPRINGELVES

The coupon code is valid through May 14th, 2024. So if you need a new audiobook for spring, we’ve got you covered!

-JM

What’s next?

Now that WIZARD-THIEF is finished and out in the world, what am I writing next?

First up is CLOAK OF TITANS, the eleventh CLOAK MAGE book. I am currently 32,000 words into it, and I am hoping it will be out toward the end of May. I suspect this will be a somewhat longer book, so it might slip until June depending on how things go.

CLOAK OF TITANS is not the end of the Nadia series, but we are burning up a LOT of the ongoing subplots in this book.

After CLOAK OF TITANS is finished, next up will be SHIELD OF DARKNESS, the second book in THE SHIELD WAR series, which hopefully will be out sometime this summer.

After SHIELD OF DARKNESS, I will then write HALF-ORC PALADIN, which will be the third Rivah book.

So if all goes well, that is what I am working on next.

-JM

How To Celebrate The 150th Book

GHOST IN THE VEILS was my 150th book. Thanks for reading, everyone!

Quite a few people asked how I wanted to celebrate, the implication being that I wanted to take a trip or something. Like a cruise, that sort of thing. However, with all respect to the cruise industry, if I wanted to catch norovirus, I could it much closer to home for far less expense.

However, I have established precedent for this. Way back in 2019, DRAGONTIARNA: KNIGHTS was my 100th book, and to celebrate that milestone I got a Nintendo Switch, which was the first dedicated video game console I had used since 1998 or so. Given that six months later Covid started, that turned out to be a wise purchase. I got to beat a bunch of games I never had time to finish otherwise – Super Mario Brothers, Super Mario Brothers 3, the original Castlevania trilogy, the Super Nintendo Castlevania games, Super Metroid, and Skyrim. I did finish a few newer games on it as well, like Metroid Dread and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.

I recently had one of those numerically significant birthdays that are divisible by a large number, so I commemorated the occasion by getting an Xbox. It’s a fine game console, but the problem with the Xbox, unlike the Switch, is that using it monopolizes the television. I finished the original Halo trilogy on Xbox, and Skyrim (again), but the whole Xbox-monopolizes-the-television thing was a difficulty.

But then a new device came to my attention – portable monitors. Obviously, most monitors are portable depending on size, but this new sort of monitor is basically a laptop LCD panel with a kickstand. It runs off USB-C for power, and you can connect a device to it with USB-C or mini-HDMI. Overall, they tend to weigh about as much as an iPad in a case. Portable monitors like these were basically intended for business travelers, since they fit easily into a laptop bag and then you can have a dual-monitor setup with your laptop while you’re on the road.

However, it also connects just fine to an Xbox. If you can hold a laptop comfortably in your lap, then a portable monitor is about like 33% of the weight of a laptop. So I moved my Xbox over next to the couch, connected it to a portable monitor, and have been using the Xbox that way. It’s really quite exceedingly comfortable. Since I’ve beaten Skyrim a couple of times now, I need to decide on a new long-term game, which is why Question of the Week asked about Xbox games.

So, the TLDR version, I celebrated my 150th book with a sub-$100 portable monitor off Amazon. It’s really quite enjoyable.

And thanks for coming along for 150 books!

-JM

 

WIZARD-THIEF now available!

I am pleased to report that WIZARD-THIEF is now available!

You can get it at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon CA, Amazon AU, and for Kindle Unlimited subscribers.

Even the boldest thief must watch her back.

Rivah Half-Elven is a master thief of the Court of the Masked King, and has finally escaped the debts that hung over her head like a sword.

But she made many enemies along the way, and they have not forgotten her.

So when the Masked King himself has a job for Rivah, she has no choice but to take it if she wants to stay in his good graces.

The job is much more dangerous than it first appears, but treachery from Rivah’s fellow thieves may be far deadlier.

It will take all of Rivah’s cunning and her growing skill at magic to survive…

-JM

 

Question of the week: next Xbox game?

It’s time for Question of the Week, which is designed to inspire interesting discussion of enjoyable topics.

This week’s question: what Xbox game should I play next? No wrong answers, obviously.

The reason I ask this particular question is because I keep defaulting to Skyrim or Halo when I play an Xbox game, and I would like to try something different.

My leading candidates so far are Starfield, Witcher 3, and Dragon’s Dogma 1.

-JM

The Pulp Writer Show, Episode 196: Virtual Voice Audiobooks?

In this week’s episode, I answer a reader’s question about whether or not I will use KDP’s new Virtual Voice program to create AI-narrated audiobooks. You can listen to the entire episode (with transcript) at the official Pulp Writer Show site.

-JM

Coupon of the week, 4/15/2024

Once again it’s time for Coupon of the Week!

It’s Tax Day in the US, so let’s have a discount on an audiobook! This coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of DRAGONSKULL: SHIELD OF THE KNIGHT (as excellently narrated by Brad Wills) at my Payhip store:

SPRINGSHIELD

The coupon code is valid through April 30th, 2024. So if you need a new audiobook for spring, we’ve got you covered!

-JM

sign up for my newsletter and get a free short story

If all goes well, WIZARD-THIEF will be coming out next week! Newsletter subscribers will be getting a free ebook copy of THIEF’S FAVOR, which means this is a great time to sign up for my newsletter.

-JM