Keith Robinson's Blog, page 19

Island of Fog is FREE for Kindle on August 29th-30th

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Amazon.com
(USA and India)
or
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(for UK readers)

As the title suggests, I'm running a FREE giveaway promo for Island of Fog for two full days throughout August 29th and 30th only. Yes, you read correctly. It's free, people, so if you don't have it already, get it now!

If you have a Kindle, or even if you just have the free Kindle app on your phone, tablet or PC, download Island of Fog today or tomorrow while you have the chance. It's 12:45 PM as I write this and already the book has been downloaded 483 times. I'll let y'all know the total when the promo is over.

By the way, this ties in neatly with the official launch of Roads of Madness on August 31st. I'll post about that separately. Today's focus is on Island of Fog. Even if you've read it already, or you don't normally read Kindle books, please go ahead and download it. Your click will count towards my download total, which might help boost my overall ranking.

If you have a Facebook page, please don't be shy about letting your friends and family know of this free download. Here's some blurb you can use:

For Facebook:
FREE AUG 29-30 -- ISLAND OF FOG -- 4.9 rating / 16 reviews
On a secluded foggy island, Hal and his classmates realize they're part of a shapeshifting experiment. Fantasy for all ages 9 and up.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002JCSA22?t...

For Twitter:
FREE Aug 29-30 on Kindle: ISLAND OF FOG, a creepy shapeshifting fantasy for all ages. #fantasy #youngadult http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002JCSA22?t...

If you're in the UK, please use this link instead:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002JCSA22?tag=unearthlytale-21

Feel free to alter as you wish.

...and enjoy!

Brand new Island of Fog web page

I've been meaning to create a separate web page for the Island of Fog series. Call it a splash page if you like, especially as it shows Hal and Robbie splashing around in the water...

I usually direct people to my Unearthly Tales blog, which is fine except that occasionally I wish I had a more concise page showing the books, a few blurbs, and links to Amazon. Well, this new splash page does that. It's not completely finished and never will be; I'll keep tweaking as time goes on. But if I'm waving a copy of my book in someone's face, it's easier and far more logical to say "go to island of fog dot com" than pointing them to my blog.

Incidentally, if you click through to the splash page, you'll see that I now have my new Island of Fog cover in place for the Kindle and Nook ebooks. I also added "Island of Fog Book 1" at the top to match the others in the series.

Funny enough, I like the splash page so much that I kind of wish I was using it on the book cover... but it would be such a dramatic change that I don't think it's a good idea at the moment. Maybe in the distant future if I ever rebrand them all. For now, the cover will remain a familiar blue even with the addition of a manticore.

The launch of Roads of Madness is on schedule. Not long now! It'll be available at Kindle and Nook on August 31st, and in print shortly after.

New book cover for Island of Fog

I've always liked manticores. I once wrote a post about them, aptly titled Manticores, which I urge you to read if you haven't already. Anyway, these mythical creatures have the body of a lion, a semi-human face, and a scorpion's tail.

One of the shapeshifters in Island of Fog is a manticore, and I've often thought he would make a good subject for the cover. Back when I started this series, I thought the title and foggy woods alone were atmospheric enough, and that seems to be the case for many older readers, but younger readers in particular are just not interested in it. I found this out when I went to a book signing years ago. So there I was with Book 1, Island of Fog, and Book 2, Labyrinth of Fire, side by side on the table, watching the faces of younger readers as they stopped by. They skipped over the first book and went to the second, drawn to its colorful, vivid dragon cover. Of the two books, they only wanted to buy that one. I had to tell them to ignore the cover, that they really needed to start with the first book in the series. But there was resistance, as if there was no way Island of Fog could be anywhere near as interesting as Labyrinth of Fire.

So I've known for a long time that I need to get myself a more interesting cover, one that fits better with the later books, all of which have a subject -- a dragon on Labyrinth of Fire and Mountain of Whispers, a jengu water spirit on Lake of Spirits, and more recently a crazy scrag on the cover of Roads of Madness. In contrast, Island of Fog looks sparse and, frankly, boring.

I'm not a professional cover designer so there are probably many out there who wince when they see my amateur attempts. I'm learning, though, and I hope I'm getting better as time goes on. A little while ago I changed the electronic book covers (Kindle and Nook) so that they had the same style title text throughout, all in capitals to stand out better. But Island of Fog still needs a subject, namely a manticore, hence the purpose of this post.

Since manticores are not real, there are no stock photos of them. There are quite a few paintings around, but none that are available to use without infringing on copyright (and probably none that I could afford to buy). So I set about building one. I took a nice stock photo of a lion (which I bought for a few dollars) and then a few extra photos of "components" with which to transform the lion into a manticore.

larger view

I tried a number of different faces but kept coming back to the one pictured here in the final cover. He looks dangerous yet calm and intelligent at the same time, capable of dialog. Some artists depict manticores as wild beasts, but I like to think of them as smart as well as dangerous. And the one in Island of Fog is, after all, one of the shapeshifters. Hal, Robbie and Abigail confront him in Black Woods, and this becomes a pivotal moment for the friends as they fully realize their own shapeshifting talents...

My covers always have a slightly surreal quality to them because they're constructed with photos rather than paintings. I'm okay with that. If I could just visit a mythological zoo and take a couple of photos of a manticore, it would be SO much easier.

This particular version of the cover was "approved" by a class of fifth-grade students in author Brian Clopper's class. I had another version with his mouth open, but he looked more like a gorilla (not surprisingly, since I used a picture of King Kong's mouth). And another version that looked... well, odd. That was using a picture of Michael Myers' mask from the Halloween movies.

Anyway, I'm probably going to introduce this new cover to the electronic books within the next week:

Assuming there's no "Arrghh!! No!! It's horrible!!" outcry, the new cover will also show up on the print editions eventually, but that's another matter. Out of consideration for those who have collected the set so far, I don't want to change the cover format too much. So when it comes to the print editions, the title text throughout the series will remain the same as it is right now. Only the picture on Island of Fog will change, and that might take a while because of the way print publishing works.

In a separate post I'll give you an overview of all the different covers I've either used or abandoned throughout this series. Some you've seen and some you haven't. It should be fun! In the meantime, I'll leave you with this cheesy yet "says-it-all" design that I'll be using on a t-shirt at Dragon*Con next month...

Advanced reader copies of Roads of Madness nearly ready

As the title says, I'm very close to sending out the advanced reader copies (ARCs) of Roads of Madness. I "finished" the manuscript last week but only in the sense that I got to the last page.

In the movies, the author types the last line (on a typewriter), then bundles his papers together into a briefcase and goes off to his agent's office. The agent then proceeds to read the entire manuscript from start to finish while the author is standing there looking out the window. The agent throws down her glasses and says, "Best novel EVER!" and then usually a sadistic killer (supernatural of otherwise) later forces the author to destroy the book in some way...

In real life, at least for me, when the first draft is finished, the honing and whittling starts. I read the whole thing through again, slowly, bit by bit, editing as I go. This is often complete rewrites paragraph by paragraph, sometimes flitting around the manuscript to fix other mentions of the thing I just changed. It can take almost as long to edit a chapter as it did to write it in the first place. The first draft is about getting the story on the pages. The second draft is about making the words look nice.

After the second draft I send the manuscript to my proofreaders. Now, I should clarify that when I say "proofreaders," I really mean proofreaders and copyeditors rolled into one. Proofreaders by definition only proofread; they read the words and check for typos. Copyeditors do a whole lot more than that; they suggest rewording, look out for inconsistencies and plot holes, and generally mention anything they think is worth mentioning -- as well as proofreading for typos. I'm very lucky to have such dedicated "proofreaders" to rely on!

While they're proofreading/copyediting, I'm going through the book again ironing out any flaws I can think of. In the last few days I slid two pages from one chapter to another, then slid another two pages, and ended up with a four-page gap that I could use to write a much-needed new scene. I also went through the rest of the manuscript tweaking sentences here and there to allow for updated information; for instance, if I decide someone should lose a shoe on page 156, I need to make sure they get it back before page 167 where they're all running around on sharp rocks. (I'm just giving an example here.)

Pretty soon I'll have all the notes back from my proofreaders/copyeditors, and I can go through correcting all my horrible typos and considering any new suggestions. This will take a few days. At the moment I'm just about on track to have the ARCs ready by the end of July as expected, and if not, in the very early days of August.

The purpose of sending out ARCs is to gauge overall reader reactions of a book that, by this time, is as shiny as a new penny. ARC readers are not required to look for typos, but of course I'd like to know of any they happen to find. Mostly, I'm looking for reviews -- and hopefully good ones! And if they all came back and said, "Hey, there's a major problem with this section," well, then I'd consider a rewrite before the book is launched. But hopefully that won't happen. Hopefully it will be received well and I can launch on August 31st as planned, and then millions of people buy the book and I give up my day job and become a rich author like Rick Castle (only I wouldn't have any interest in partnering with the local Chickamauga Police to solve crimes).

Stay tuned, eager ARC readers -- your electronic editions should be with you soon!

Oh, and a final announcement for any Facebook users who want to win a free copy of Roads of Madness when it's released. "LIKE" my Island of Fog Series page if you haven't already, then visit this post and add a comment to enter for a free copy. Eligible winners must have posted a comment and be listed as a fan of the series. :-)

Flight of Blue

Although you'd be forgiven for assuming this is the title of a book in my own series, Flight of Blue is the new fantasy novel for young readers by A. E. Howard, another great writer I've come to know recently.

A cursed traffic light. A rip in the fabric of the world. A possum sorcerer injured on a quest for revenge.

Kai and Ellie embark on a journey to return the sorcerer to his home. Entangled in events that could destroy the world, Kai must choose whether to accept the role he was born to play, but isn't sure he wants.

Anna is launching her novel on July 24, and I invited her to post here about it. Luckily, Anna has a 4-part series of blog posts that is being split between different bloggers, and I got Part 4 -- and so, without further ado, let's hand over to author A. E. Howard...

Part 1: The Idea: A Cursed Light and a Possum Sorcerer hosted by Heidi Daniels

Part 2: The Characters: Talking animals, silent animals, and humans too, Oh My! hosted by Ruth Long

Part 3: The Three Realms hosted by Julie Jordan Scott

Part 4: Magic and Prophecy

I think it was Brandon Sanderson who once said that when creating a system of magic, it was as important to figure out what it couldn't do, as to figure out what it could do. As I worked through the various types of magic in Flight of Blue, I found myself very grateful for that advice playing in the back of my mind. As we travel through the world of The Keeper of the Keys Chronicles, we meet several different kinds of sorcerers, and while powerful, they all have their own sets of limitations.

Limitations are actually what allow the story to function, because if the magic wasn't limited, then someone good or evil would be all-powerful, and there would be either no story, or there would be deadlock. If just one sorcerer were all-powerful, then they would instantly win and either everything could then be ice-cream, lolly-pops and fluffy bunnies (okay, so maybe not that sugary), or everything would be all darkness, bleakness and black oily grime (I'd take the lollies over that any day, wouldn't you?).

Or, if both one good sorcerer and one evil sorcerer were all-powerful, you'd just have an eternal stalemate. Not only is that a boring story, there's no room for the involvement of mortals, and so they'd basically be bystanders. Boring.

So limitations on the magic allow there to actually be a story where cool and awesome things are possible, but there's still danger and adventure and struggle. All the things that make something worth reading.

The Prophecy of the Lucinarium ends up being a big deal, even though it's just mentioned in Flight of Blue. (Shhh! I'm giving out advanced information from book 2! But this will just be our secret, okay?). As I started writing the sequel to Flight of Blue, I realized (yes, I'm sort of pantsing again), that not only is the prophecy the key to discovering Kai's identity, there's a whole second part of it that is yet to be discovered and that drives the rest of the story to completion. Of course, Kai still has to figure out what happened to his parents and rescue them before he can truly hunt down the meaning of the prophecy and follow where it leads. But that's why there's two more books to record the story.

Anna will be dropping by here over the next few days to answer any questions you might have.

For information about the author and her book launch party, visit her website.Buy Flight of Blue in paperback or ebook format.

And use the widget below to enter for a free copy of Flight of Blue and other goodies.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Irving Wishbutton and the Questing Academy

Author, teacher and friend Brian Clopper is spending this week promoting his latest Kindle release, a fantasy novel called Irving Wishbutton and the Questing Academy, and I wanted to join in because this is a truly brilliant and unique novel that all fantasy fans should read.

I urge you to buy the book on Kindle for only $2.99. Be sure to read the Look Inside! sample -- I'm pretty sure the clever chapter titles in the table of contents will persuade you even before you start reading.

Best-selling fantasy author Piers Anthony raved about this one even more than my own books (hehe) with a long review way back in his June 2010 newsletter. Not bad considering Brian only sent him part of the manuscript. Since then, Brian's been working on other things, and I'm glad it's finally being published.

I raved about it too in my Amazon review entitled Clopper at his best:

As the review title says, I strongly believe this is Brian Clopper's finest hour to date. It's not his first novel, nor his last, but it will always be a personal favorite with me. The whole idea of it is unique: the main character is (literally) being fleshed out as the story progresses while, in a parallel story, the fictional author goes about his daily routine and jots down ideas. So Irving comes to life slowly and surely at the hand of his unseen creator... and not a moment too soon!

It's hard to explain the plot properly in a sentence, but it rocks. The story is well told, has fabulous characters, and as a bonus the author excels in his ability to come up with cool and clever ideas and names for characters, places and creatures. It ends nicely but leaves the door wide open for Book 2, and I can't wait because it promises to be a corker.

Fed up with run-of-the-mill fantasy romps? Buy IRVING WISHBUTTON AND THE QUESTING ACADEMY.

Also, be sure to check out the author's blog over at BrianClopper.com.

Free online epub/mobi creator tool

This post is for indie authors who need a free, easy-to-use online tool to create an epub file for use with most ebook readers and apps.

As a website developer and programmer by trade, I created an online tool that produces clean epub files that validate well. I've used this tool for all my books so far, and there are other indie authors who have used it successfully.

I'm offering my home-made epub tool FREE to any indie authors who want to give it a whirl. There are no obligations; I ask only that if you have suggestions for improvement (ie, if anything is unclear or doesn't work the way you expect) then you let me know politely and remember that it's in beta mode.

Click for larger view

This tool is not for everyone. There are pros and cons depending on the way you like to work and whether there's anything "awkward" about your book. For most standard novels, this tool will work for you. But it's no good if you have a non-fiction book with special headings, tables, bullet points, pictures, and so on.

For the most part, this tool will suit those who can't abide "meat grinders" like SmashWords, which takes your Word document and auto-converts it AFTER you've gone through a million formatting rules.

This tool is for those of you who prefer things to be simple and clean. The result is an ebook that looks like any of my Kindle and Nook books, for example Island of Fog (check the Look Inside! feature).

The setup process involves uploading your book on a chapter-by-chapter basis -- you copy-paste your chapters one by one into a text box and (optionally) add a chapter title. Yes, this can be boring for those who have short and plentiful chapters! But it's quicker and easier than many other tools, and once your chapters and a few other details are entered, it's a simple matter of pressing the "generate epub" button. The text box accepts rich text during input, but all formatting and/or HTML is stripped out except for italics and bold (and it's really only italics that should be in a novel anyway). Ebooks should be simple, and as I said above, this tool works for most "standard" novels.

The epub validates perfectly as long as you don't have anything weird in your text (eg, accented characters). If these are essential, then a not-quite-validated epub will probably still be accepted by Kindle and Nook.

The generated epub file works for Nook and many other ebook readers. You can also upload the same epub file to your KDP Kindle account, and Kindle will convert it to mobi without a problem. If you're not ready to upload it to Kindle yet, but want a Kindle (mobi) file, then you can either run the epub file through Kindle's downloadable previewer tool, or import it into Calibre and convert it that way.

If you'd like to try it out -- again, for free, no obligation -- then email me at keith@unearthlytales.com and introduce yourself. I'm lowering myself gently into "public" waters with this tool. I'm not looking for payment or donations or anything like that. If there's anything I want from all this, it's simple networking and any exposure for my books that comes with it.

Get an advance copy of Roads of Madness

Since I'm now writing the last chapter of Roads of Madness, I'm thinking ahead to the launch date on August 31st. I'm looking for volunteers willing to read the book in advance and review it on GoodReads or private blogs before the launch date, and also -- perhaps most importantly -- copy that review to Amazon as soon as the book becomes available. Interested?

An ARC (Advance Reader Copy) will probably contain a few typos here and there, and maybe even a few bits that end up being rewritten before launch. But 99% of the story will be good to go, so if you can read the book in four weeks and look past a few errors, this is a good way of catching up with Hal and his friends a month before everyone else -- and for free.

If you'd like an ARC copy in either .pdf, .epub, or .mobi format (no print editions at this stage), just comment below and leave your email address so I can send you a copy when it's ready. (Or email me privately at keith@unearthlytales.com.)

Please remember -- I'm looking for those who are genuinely willing and able to spread the word with reviews on GoodReads, blogs, websites, and so on, and then copy the same review to Amazon right after the book shows up as "on sale" on August 31st.

Those who help me out the most and bring new readers to the Island of Fog series will receive a FREE printed edition of Roads of Madness when it becomes available later in August.

ARC copies should be available around the end of July. Request a copy now! :-)

Roads of Madness preview and launch date

The opening chapters of Roads of Madness are now online. While these chapters are polished and final, there may still be one or two additional edits needed by the time the book is finished. If you spot anything untoward -- a typo or inconsistency -- please don't be shy about letting me know!

"This morning I took out a comma. This afternoon I put it back again." —Oscar Wilde

20 out of 22 chapters are drafted, but only the prologue and first two chapters are what I might dare call "complete." Chapters 3-12 are fairly well edited and ready for proofing. Chapters 13-20 are very rough. Chapter 21-22 are still in my head. So it's getting there.

I also have an official launch date of August 31st, 2012, for Kindle users only to start with. See the countdown banner at right. The printed editions will follow after that, and then Nook and other ebook formats. I'm changing tactics a little this time around, which I'll explain fully in a later post.

For now, I hope you enjoy the preview of Roads of Madness. It's July 4th today, Independence Day in the U.S., but for Hal and his friends it's the middle of winter and they're feeling anything but independent.

Ideas to reboot the Island of Fog series

No, I'm not planning to rewrite the books or anything like that; this "reboot" is more for the benefit of publishers. You see, I learned long ago that publishers might not be interested in my books because... well, because they're already published. And I couldn't undo that even if I wanted to, which I don't. I like self-publishing.

But there's no reason I can't produce Island of Fog-ish books exclusively for submission to publishers. I can't simply rename the books because that would be cheating, but I can write spin-off books or prequels that are based on the series but otherwise completely unique.

So by "reboot" I mean writing about different characters in a similar situation. The obvious choice is delving into an era before Hal and his friends came along -- way back when Miss Simone and her classmates were discovering themselves. I have everything I need already in place. The characters are there, the world is there, even the background history is there. I would be writing about my familiar world but from a fresh new perspective. Fans of the series would instantly relate to it, but new readers would see it as a completely new series that stands on its own.

I would also benefit from several books' worth of experience. When I look at Island of Fog now, I keep finding clunky sentences and minor typos and missing hyphens... In other words, I feel like (and hope) I've learned a few things over the last few years. They say you should never submit your first novel to a publisher. Or your second. Well, by the end of August I would have written five, not to mention a couple of others in the background. Hopefully that's enough "practice" in the eyes of a publisher! Five books is half a million words, after all.

The problem with writing about Miss Simone and her classmates is that, according to the story, they all began shapeshifting at age eight. I started off my series aiming for MG (middle grade readers age 9-12) but I think they've shifted a little towards YA (young adult readers age 12+). An eight-year-old main character wouldn't work in either case, and since I plan to label my spin-off novels YA, I really need a main character who is around fourteen or so. Therefore I wouldn't be able to follow Miss Simone directly the way I followed Hal; I would have my new fourteen-year-old working with the young shapeshifters, perhaps unaware of what's going on until they start changing...

There are lots of ways I could go about this, but in all cases I'd be writing about "what I know" -- in other words, a world I've already created and am familiar with. I think having an obvious familiarity with a vast number of small details introduced throughout the Fog series will come through in a new, back-to-the-beginning novel, even though the main character will be someone entirely different.

I had another idea, too, that takes place several years after the current Fog series. I'm going to add a small tie-in toward the end of Roads of Madness, a sort of foreshadowing for that future book. In fact I'm about to write it into an upcoming scene. This foreshadowing will probably go unnoticed by most, but if I ever write that tie-in/spin-off novel, then fans will be able to look back and say, "Ah yes!" and point triumphantly at the page. I like stuff like that.

At the moment I'm thinking of writing these spin-offs exclusively for submission to publishers, but failing all else I would end up with a set of new books that I could self-publish for fans later on. :-)