Keith Robinson's Blog, page 6

Gargoyles, a classroom in Australia, book reviews, and my kitchen floor

I promised some more details about Book 3 of the Island of Fog Legacies, Gargoyle Scourge, so here I am with some more details! Also, a few other updates that involve such things as book reviews, Australia, and kitchen floors.

Gargoyle Scourge (Island of Fog Legacies #3)

I'm about 65% complete with this book, which is not quite as much I'd hoped. I blame my kitchen floor for that. This means the publication date is being pushed back a bit. Still, the good news is that it's coming along VERY nicely, a worthy installment in the Legacies series. Let's meet some of the characters...

Melinda Strickland is Robbie and Lauren's 11-year-old daughter. She's taking the reins in this book, leading the charge against gargoyles while Travis is "stuck" in his current form (read Sinister Roots if you haven't already). I think she's doing a fine job on her first mission.

Travis Franklin is, as mentioned above, "stuck" in his current form. He has an important role to play, but he's very much in the background, more of an assistant to Melinda, a bit of muscle. I'm finding it refreshing to take a break from his point of view and concentrate on another character.

Molly the gorgon features heavily in this book. I like how everything is stone-related. As you know, Molly can turn people to stone, and gargoyles are naturally stone creatures that come to life. Blair the phoenix shows up too, and readers of the original series will probably guess why.

Goji is the stonelike woman on the cover of the book. She has a mysterious history that turns out to be quite epic. Forget goji berries. Goji is the name of a creature often associated with gargoyles, and in particular the Gargouille from 1500 years ago. In the original Island of Fog novel, Miss Simone talked about a monster similar to Fenton's unnamed lizard that rose from the Seine River in France and had to be slayed by Romanus, the bishop of Rouen. Well, Gargoyle Scourge reveals all. You'll learn more about Fenton's lizard monster as well as how gargoyles came about. It wasn't easy delving into Goji's long, long history, but who said I wanted it to be easy? There are roughly four chapters dedicated to her personal story, and she's a major component throughout.

Sylphs are phantoms that snatch souls from people. They showed up in Castle of Spells, and I liked them so much that I always wanted to bring them back. And so I did, and they have a major role in Gargoyle Scourge.

So there you have it, some juicy details about the latest book in this series. I've been delayed in my writing, so the publication date will NOT be early December as I said in my previous post. But I'm getting there. :-)

And now onto other things...

Speaking to a Classroom in Australia

Yes, I did this recently -- got on Skype and talked for a while to a group of twenty children who had just finished reading Island of Fog. It was fun! I've known the teacher Miss Fletcher (or simply Heather) since 2005 through an author fansite I own, EnidBlyton.net, and she actually visited America a few years ago and stayed a couple of nights at our house. So when she became a teacher and introduced my books to her class... well!

It's always good to take questions from younger readers and to get their perspective on things.:-)

Book Reviews

Piers Anthony, the bestselling fantasy author of the Xanth series, recently read and reviewed two of my books in his monthly newsletter. Here's what he had to say (with a couple of small spoilers removed):

I read Unicorn Hunters by Keith Robinson. Unearthlytales.com. This is the beginning of a new series set in the Isle of Fog realm, now with the son of the prior main character. This is Travis, 12, coming of age to become a shapeshifter. He wants to be a dragon like his father, but dragons are no longer allowed, so he'll be a wyvern instead, like a small dragon. But when he gets the treatment, it turns out that his immune system is so strong that it won't last long, maybe only a few days. He meets Nitwit, an annoying waist-high imp whom he regards as a friend, though somehow she never quite helps him. Then he runs afoul of poachers, and this is a pointed play on poaching as done on our Earth, with unscrupulous men using technology like guns and jeeps to capture wild creatures for profit. He tries to save a unicorn but gets captured himself, imprisoned among twenty assorted fantasy creatures. Some are deadly dangerous, but still he wants to get them back into the wild where they belong. The main adventure is about that, as he struggles to free them but keeps getting countered by the savvy boss poacher. In the end he does succeed, thanks to his determination and nerve, and escapes himself winning the trust of the unicorn, but his shapeshifting ability expires. I do recommend this one to readers who liked the Island of Fog series, and to new readers, who can start with this one with minimal confusion. It is taut hard-hitting adventure, with many interesting creatures.

And:

I read Sinister Roots by Keith Robinson. Unearthlytales.com. This is the second in the current series, sequel to Unicorn Hunters, featuring twelve year old Travis again. This time he is sent with a friend to deliver a box to the Grim Reaper. But the main story is about those roots. It turns out that a giant brain below is sending up shoots that resemble trees, which spread sort of scorpion-like creatures to take over creatures above and make them cooperate in a general expansion. The way the big bugs take over people reminds me of The Puppet Masters by Robert Heinlein. They ride a person's back and control him. But Travis, who this time can shape change into a deadly chimera with the head of a lion, tail of a snake, and head of a fire-spitting goat on his back, manages to change forms and escape. He realizes that they are about to take over the planet, and has a scary adventure trying to stop them. This is another compelling story that adults should enjoy as well as teens. I have said it before: this is an author who deserves a much larger readership.

Piers is 82 now and still writing. I hope I keep going strong into my eighties! That'll mean I still have 30 years left in me, so about 100 more books before I retire...

Kitchen Floor

This has nothing to do writing except that it's one of the major reasons I'm behind! I've been doing some renovating and redecoration work for the past year, on and off -- moving the laundry room to the basement, creating a better bedroom and a new corridor, moving an external door sideways about three feet, widening an internal doorway so it's more open, laying laminate floor, and now the kitchen/dining floor. It's had dips and lumps in it for years, so I finally pulled up half of it and have been in the crawl space jacking up joists and trying to straighten things out. I crawled under the other half too -- no sense pulling that floor up and making an even bigger mess.

Anyway, finally it's back down with a brand new layer of boards. Much flatter than it was, and definitely less bouncy. Now it's (almost) ready for laminate flooring, which I've had stored in my office since February.

I expect to spend the weekend and following days painting and laying floor, then putting the dining room back. Meanwhile, I'm working on my website stuff (my day job) and trying to fit in an hour or so per day for writing.

To be honest, time isn't as much of an issue than just staying awake...

Working on a new book cover for Sleep Writer

I've come to the conclusion that my cover for Sleep Writer (Book 1) is not sci-fi enough. This may be obvious to any halfway decent professional cover designer, but I'm not a professional; I'm still learning as I go. So at the moment I'm attempting make the cover jump out a bit more to potential readers who might otherwise skim past it.

Before I get into that, a quick welcome to all new subscribers in the last couple of weeks. I hope you enjoy your freebie book, Fractured. Let me know if you have any trouble downloading it or putting it on your device. I'm happy to help!

Right, to business. Sleep Writer has been knocking about on Amazon, Nook, Apple, and Kobo for two years now, and I'd hoped to see a little more movement in sales. It's kind of slow. In the back of my mind, I've had this notion that the cover just doesn't jump out. It may be intriguing to some, but I think it's missing the mark in terms of my target audience -- young readers who love aliens and space stories as well as wormholes and time travel.

One reviewer, though he liked the book in the end, started out saying:

I should really start reading the synopsis of books before I actually read the book. I thought this would be a paranormal/ghost story, but we are quickly introduced to aliens...

Now, Sleep Writer does have elements of the paranormal... until the reader discovers it's not really paranormal at all. In case you don't know, Madison (the sleep writer) has a tendency to write messages to herself in her sleep, and these messages point to surprisingly regular clandestine alien visitations. So while it seems Madison has a ghostly spirit manipulating her, it's actually more sci-fi-y than that. But the title and cover don't scream "Aliens! Spaceships! Wormholes! Time travel!"

So what to do? I thought about altering the title. Currently, the three published books in this series are:

Sleep Writer (Book 1)
Robot Blood (Sleep Writer Book 2)
Caleb's World (Sleep Writer Book 3)

Since "Sleep Writer" doesn't jump out as sci-fi, what if I altered it? Here's a bad example to give you an idea:

Alien Wormholes (Sleep Writer Book 1)
Robot Blood (Sleep Writer Book 2)
Caleb's World (Sleep Writer Book 3)

See? It immediately clues readers in.

I can change the ebook title without a problem. Amazon, Nook, Apple, and Kobo allow such things. But print editions are another matter. Typically, the title is locked to a specific ISBN. I can't change the title without starting over, which means there'd be an out-of-print title knocking about forever in addition to the new title. I don't want that.

So I'm stuck with the title as it is. Okay, so I just need to change the cover art, right? Make it more sci-fi? How about something like this mockup, with a different font to appeal to younger readers?

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I like the idea of depicting Liam being sucked into a wormhole, a pivotal scene in the book, but now the title "Sleep Writer" doesn't fit the picture. So I thought I'd try adding Madison, the sleep writer herself:

I think this works. Do you? Here's how it would look across all three published books along with the fourth due next year:

Okay, so at this point I was fairly happy. I got an opinion from someone, and he liked it. Of course, I'd prefer a bunch of opinions just to be sure, hence this post.

Then I started wondering what it would look like with the main cover art and the sleep writer bit switched like this:

I kind of like the second one better, but I'm not sure. It seems a little better balanced. Thoughts? It's okay to say you hate it or make other suggestions. But my purpose is to appeal to sci-fi readers aged 9-12. Remember, anyone browsing Amazon for new books only gives a nanosecond to each thumbnail on the page, so it has to stand out.

So, an overall summary...

Opinions? Should I choose New #1 or New #2, or stay with the original, or try something completely different?

When is it okay to give away major plot details?

I'm constantly plagued by dilemmas about what past plot details to give away when promoting and even writing the next book in the series. If Book 1 has been out for six months and Book 2 is imminent, is it okay to reveal some major information about the first book in order to properly plug the second?

I'll let you ponder that while I bring you up to date with the latest news...

Newest Book in the Island of Fog Chronicles

I started work on Tails of a Shapeshifter (Island of Fog Chronicles). Yes, "Tails" is deliberately misspelled; it's a play on words. I'm bundling a few of the free short stories from this website into an ebook, but I'm filling in around them with brand new material and a few extra stories. Some readers may feel this is cheating, but actually I've had a LOT of requests to do this because many readers just prefer to read things on their Kindle in the usual way rather than read it online here. And adding some new material will hopefully make it a worthwhile buy even for those who have read the free short stories.

Hal and Abigail have to pop out one evening on a very quick mission, and they leave their son Travis (who is 8 years old in this book) with Robbie and Lauren and their kids. This gives Robbie a chance to tell some tall tales, some taller than others. So, with Travis settled comfortably near the fireplace along with 7-year-old Melinda and her little brother Mason, Robbie rubs his hands with glee and launches into some truly unbelievable stories. Some of them you might have read on this website. Others will be brand new.

The book will include the two pre-written Christmas tales along with the 4-part Silver Wand story, plus another three tales you've never seen before, as well as all the interconnecting segments. One thing to note is that, since Robbie is telling the stories, he will feature in all of them. Overall, a decent-sized book and a good addition to the Chronicles series.

This should be available in the next few months, date to be confirmed.

Not by coincidence, the next book in the Island of Fog Legacies series (Gargoyle Scourge, which I'm working on right now) also features Melinda, this time in the lead role at age 11, with Travis taking a back seat and assisting her. I gave some details about this novel in my last post, and I'd like to give more, only that would spoil it. Which leads to my main topic...

Major Plot Details, and When to Give Them Away

My first book, Island of Fog, is very much a mystery-adventure. What is happening to these kids? What's the secret behind the fog? Who is the mysterious Miss Simone, and where does she come from? To give away the plot details would spoil the story. Yet, when I wrote the second book, Labyrinth of Fire, I knew I couldn't promote it very well without giving away some vital information.

So I suppose the rule is that a book's plot should be kept secret until it's no longer possible, like when the next book is published. Still, this means new readers coming along several years later won't ever experience that "what the heck is happening?" moment the original readers felt.

It's like the movie Alien. It's a psychological horror that relies heavily on first-time viewing experience. Those who went to see the movie in 1979 fully expected the ship's captain, played by actor Tom Skerritt, to be the hero -- because he was the big star at the time, while most others were not so well known. Then the captain died, and the audience thought, "Whoa! What the...?" And after that, they had NO IDEA who would die a xenomorphic death and who, if anyone, would survive. Sigourney Weaver? Who's she?

Nowadays we watch the movie knowing full well that Siggy is the star, and so we enjoy the movie in a different way. But nothing beats that first time. (I'm not old enough to have watched it in the movie theater, but I watched it on TV a year or so later and experienced the same thrill.)

Throughout the Island of Fog series, I've been careful to keep spoilers hidden as much as possible while giving away what's necessary to promote the next book. The synopsis of Labyrinth of Fire starts, "Hal Franklin and his friends have made it safely into Miss Simone's world. As shapeshifters, some of them are looking forward to meeting their alternate kind." I can't very well hide the fact that they cross into a new world as shapeshifters, can I? "Hal Franklin and his friends have made it safely to, um, somewhere. As, um, well, special kids, some of them are looking forward to meeting, er, well, something..."

Similarly, the first book in the Sleep Writer series has a massive twist near the end. But I try hard not to reveal this one, neither on the backs of later books nor even in the stories themselves. You'd probably still enjoy the first book knowing exactly what happens at the end, but it's better with no spoilers.

Back to the Fog series... Now that I'm writing the Legacies books, set twenty years later, I not only have to reveal the basic ideas of the original series, but I have to reveal some important plot twists from the very last book, Castle of Spells. As usual, I try to keep spoilers to a minimum, but it's a difficult balancing act.

So, just to remind you, here's the question:

Is it okay for an author to give away major plot details when the next book of a series is due for release? Can you remember a time when you were a late-comer to a promising series and found it ruined by spoilers?

Imagine if you had never watched Sixth Sense and had no idea what that huge twist was at the end, and they made a sequel whose tagline was "He sees... etc" (spoiler hidden for the benefit of those few people who haven't watched it). A tagline like that would ruin the original movie. But whose fault is that, really?

Here's another thing...

I generally write chapter titles, and someone once said I gave away something in the first book with one of those titles. This is because, originally, the book was written for the print market only. I never include a Table of Contents in the front of print books. When the reader gets to the end of a chapter, the next chapter's title makes perfect sense as a natural progression in the story, so the titles can reveal something at that point without spoiling anything. But then I put Island of Fog out as a Kindle book, and the Table of Contents is shown at the front of the book -- hence the spoiler. Or spoilers; there are probably quite a few if you look closely.

So another question for you:

How closely do you look at the Table of Contents when reading my books or others? Does it ever give anything away that makes you grumble with irritation?

Personally, I have no interest in the Table of Contents at the front of a book except, obviously, as a means to jump back to where I left off before. I like to read a chapter title when I actually get to that chapter, but not before. Reading it before seems pointless to me.

That's all for now. Looking forward to your comments!

Latest book, website changes, marketing, and freebies!

I have a lot going on in the background, some of which is boring technical stuff, but other bits you might find interesting. Since I'm not really sure what floats YOUR boat, I'll just have to bundle all these things together in this post. You can skip the parts that threaten to make your eyes glaze over. However, do pay attention to the freebie offer!

Gargoyle Scourge (Island of Fog Legacies #3)

As the heading suggests, I'm well on my way with Book 3 of the Island of Fog Legacies series. I had such a great response to Book 2, Sinister Roots, that I was keen to get stuck in with the next one, Gargoyle Scourge. I'm already 30% through my first draft of this gargoyle-infested story, and the details of the plot are firmly set in stone (pun intended). You can see the cover here. I've literally just written a scene involving that weird winged creature, and I'm very happy with how that went.

More details about the story and the various characters in a month, by which time I should be well on my way to completion. I expect to publish early December.

Website Changes

In case you haven't noticed, I altered the look of my website a few weeks ago. I'm sort of trying it on for size, and I do expect a few more changes in the next week or two as I tweak things here and there. All this leads to the next topic...

Marketing and Promotion

Ugh. What a boring heading. Frankly, it's also a boring subject. I hate marketing and promotion. But the thing is, I feel like sales and interest in my books have waned slightly over the last year, and I want to kick things up a notch. This means changing my focus. Social media like Facebook is fine for talking to people who already follow me, but it's mostly worthless for generating new readers. Same with blogs. These posts are interesting to some and boring to others, and that's to be expected. The content does end up in the search engines, though, which is always a good thing... but that rarely brings in new readers.

What I need to do is focus more on my subscribers. That doesn't mean I'm about to send my mailing list a ton of unwanted spam. It just means I need to try and nudge more new readers to subscribe. I need to grow my mailing list. I need to have more of a connection with readers instead of just seeing a bunch of statistics.

Consider this: Island of Fog has been downloaded roughly 100,000 times since its publication. If even half of those had come along to my blog and subscribed, I'd have... well, 50,000 subscribers, if my math is correct. But no, somehow I missed the mark on that. I haven't been "aggressive" enough. I should have been a little cleverererer (is that a word?) about nudging those readers toward my blog and persuading them to sign up.

I've never liked spam, and I will do anything to avoid being a spammer. So if I ever sound too "spammy" and it makes you want to turn off, then I hope you'll tell me first. But it's only fair to warn y'all that I need to stoop just a little bit to the tactics employed by professionals, which is to offer freebies ("magnets") in the least spammy way possible. Hence my next subject...

Free Book!

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I recently added a "magnet" to the front and back of Island of Fog. It's basically a small ad offering a free book, in this case Fractured. The idea is that readers who download Island of Fog will have the chance to get ANOTHER free book if they follow the link, and that link takes them to a download page. All they have to do is supply their email address to subscribe. That email address is where I'll send the book. The entire process is very smooth and automated, and I think painless.

Of course, all those already on my mailing list deserve a free copy too. In fact, anyone reading this is welcome to download the book at any time. Just follow this link:

http://www.unearthlytales.com/free-fractured

Whether you're already on my mailing list or not doesn't matter. Just add (or overwrite/confirm) your email address, and you'll get the download link. You'll have a choice of MOBI format for Kindle, or EPUB format for Nook, Apple, Kobo, etc.

Going forward, I plan to give away other free books from time to time. But only to subscribers. So if you're coming across this page from Google or aren't sure your email address is in the system, subscribe now or click the freebie link above.

And finally...

A Question

If you're a subscriber and you receive my notifications when I update this blog, would you prefer to have the entire post printed in your email? Is that easier? Or do you prefer to click the link and read it online?

What's a self-published indie novel really worth?

I spent part of this weekend catching up on the last seven months' worth of statistics and sales, and number crunching to find out where I am in terms of an early retirement plan. Hmm. Sadly, I'm nowhere near it yet. I'll have to write a LOT more books before I can give up my day job. That's okay, because writing a lot more books is what I intend anyway. The question is, how many more will I need to write before I can retire?

I suppose first you have to ask yourself what you call a decent amount to retire on. Everyone will have a different opinion on this, and it will depend on several factors like whether your house is paid off, if your spouse works or not, what kind of lifestyle you lead, and so on. But let's just pluck a figure from the air. Let's say $25,000 a year from book sales. Okay, that's not enough for someone to quit his day job, but it's not that black and white for me, because I wouldn't just give up my website business all at once; I'd keep it going with existing clients but maybe stop taking on new work, and let it peter off over many years. So I'd have residual income from that and a few other things I have going on in the background. So $25,000 is not really a "give up your day job" target, but it works for me.

Currently, though, I'm a long way off. I've always appreciated when authors are transparent about their sales, whether they're earning hundreds of thousands a year, or just a few hundred. It's interesting to me to matter what. So here we go with mine. Look at the previous three years, 2013-2015:

2013 $11,920.00 -- Amazon Digital Services $191.54 -- Barnes & Noble $140.41 -- CreateSpace $418.91 -- Draft2Digital Total $12,670.86 2014 $11,290.52 -- Amazon Digital Services $522.78 -- Barnes & Noble $369.09 -- CreateSpace $828.27 -- Draft2Digital Total $13,010.66 2015 $9,976.00 -- Amazon Digital Services $368.42 -- Audible.com $377.97 -- Barnes & Noble $780.46 -- CreateSpace $1,263.52 -- Draft2Digital Total $12,766.37

Based on how books were selling, 2015 was actually looking to be more like $16,000 in total... but something happened around May that year. My sales dropped from an average of 280 per month to a puzzling 134 per month. It wasn't a gradual decline. If you looked a sales graph, you'd see a steady, horizontal line for several years, then a sudden drop in May 2015, then a new steady, horizontal line a little lower down. It's puzzling. What happened? I did a lot of googling at the time, and I found lots of authors had been affected, so I can only assume Amazon "did something." (It's always Amazon's fault, right?)

The previous horizontal sales line was so steady and consistent that I could look ahead to the future and figure out exactly how many more books I would need to replace the income from new website design business. Well, I guess I can still do that... only now the landscape is a little greyer. Here's the figures SO FAR from 2016 (as at the end of August):

2016 (Jan-Aug) $3,583.28 -- Amazon Digital Services $154.04 -- Audible.com $96.32 -- Barnes & Noble $539.52 -- CreateSpace $394.64 -- Draft2Digital Total $4,755.36

If you extrapolate from that, I would expect this year's total to be around $7,200.00, which is significantly lower than it might have been a couple of years ago. Slightly less than half by my reckoning. Ugh.

I can't complain, though. And if I did, where would it get me? According to statistics, 90-95% of authors make less than a $100 a year on their books, with the remaining few percent making hundreds of thousands. The market is saturated with new authors. I'm lucky to be making what I am, and I know it. The thing about a novel is that you pour months of hard work into creating it, and for what? A few hundred bucks a year? Maybe so. But it's potentially a few hundred bucks a year forever, and when you have a large library of books, that can make a significant difference in your old age.

And don't forget, there's always the chance that a series will suddenly find its footing and take off, and then a few hundred dollars per book might turn into something far greater. That's what authors strive and hope for.

In the meantime, anyone wanting to "earn a quick buck with a quick book"... forget it!

So, based on these recent sales figures, let's figure out how many more books I need to write to make that target of $25,000 a year. Well, since I'm probably less than a third of the way there, obviously I need to triple my library, right? I have 19 books out now, or 20 including the Island of Fog omnibus -- which means I need to write another 40 books or so.

Gulp.

If I publish 4 books a year, which is doable, that's another ten years of writing before I can stop taking on new website clients and just maintain my existing sites. If my sales hadn't halved the way they did last year, I could look forward to only five more years of writing instead of ten. But there you go.

Maybe I need to be smart about what I write going forward. Let's break this down and see what each book is actually worth:

Island of Fog -- $840 per year for each new book Sleep Writer -- $100 per year for each new book Island of Fog Chronicles -- $102 per year for each new book Island of Fog Legacies -- $363 per year for each new book

It's difficult to get calculations exactly right for a variety of reasons. Naturally, over the past 12 months, I've sold more Island of Fog Book 2 ($1236) than Books 2-9 ($953-$840 each), so I've based the above figures on the most recent book in the series, which will always logically be the lowest earner. Same with Sleep Writer and Island of Fog Legacies. The Chronicles are different, because they're independent, so I took a mean average of the two.

Still, you can clearly see which books are my bread-winners. The original Island of Fog books continue to earn the most by far. I think the Legacies books will pick up traction as the series grows, and I'm happy with the Chronicles books because they're fairly short and simple to create. But I'm disappointed with interest in the Sleep Writer series, which I had planned to write more of. I probably still will, but when you look at numbers like these and have to decide between writing a Legacies book for $363 a year or a Sleep Writer book for $100 a year... well, you know.

And as for the main Island of Fog series, I have to admit I'm tempted to write Book 10. Sales for those books is pretty consistent throughout the 9-book series, and it seems almost guaranteed that a Book 10 would be worth another $840 a year, and so on.

But should I write it simply because it earns more? Well, not if I couldn't do it justice -- except that I'm I know I could. I stopped writing those books only because I felt I'd told Hal's story and wanted a change of scene for a year or two. I've now had that change of scene, and I could go back to that series and continue with it, perhaps a year after Castle of Spells or something like that.

If I wrote ONLY Island of Fog books from now on, and they each earned the same amount of money as the others ($840 per year), then I'd need to write another 21 of them to reach my $25,000 a year. At 4 books a year, that would be five years of work. So that's a bit more promising!

Or I could continue with the Legacies books and also add a few Chronicles here and there.

Or all of the above.

Whichever way I look at it, at the current rate of sales I'd need to write part-time for at least another 5-10 years before I even think about turning away website work. Of course, it wouldn't happen that way. It'd be a gradual process, steadily more writing time versus less website design time, and more writing time would mean more books per year and more book sales, etc. And sales could increase or decrease at any time. It's all so unpredictable that this kind of number crunching only gives me the vaguest glimpse of what's around the corner.

But none of it really matters. I can't imagine life without writing.

What on earth would I do with my spare time?

Sinister Roots (Island of Fog Legacies #2) is published!

Today is the day that Sinister Roots creeps its creepy way into the bookstores. Travis Franklin, son of famous shapeshifters Hal and Abigail, takes on more than he bargains for in the second installment of the Island of Fog Legacies. Store links below.

It's now available to buy at Amazon, Apple, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble as follows:

SINISTER ROOTS
(Island of Fog Legacies #2)

Shapeshifter Travis Franklin has a new mission: to deliver a mysterious package to the Grim Reaper.

Traveling with his best friend Rez, the boys set off on an overnight journey to a blank spot on the map where Death is thought to reside. This time Travis is going as a three-headed fireball-shooting chimera, and he's fairly sure nothing will stand in his way. Not even the annoying trolls who demand payment at every turn.

Yet something else lurks in the woods. Something far more sinister even than the Grim Reaper...

SINISTER ROOTS is the second installment in the Island of Fog Legacies series.

Available on Amazon US | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble* | Kobo Books | iBookstore. See also Goodreads.

Price: $3.99

* Still processing, will be available shortly.

It will also be available in paperback for $11.95 in a few days.

Remember that the first book in the series, Unicorn Hunters, is currently on sale for $0.99 only for a limited time, after which it will go back to its usual price of $3.99. So get it now while you can!

Enjoy Sinister Roots while I work on the next book in the series. More on that in another post.

Sinister Roots launches in 9 days... and Unicorn Hunters is on sale!

You read that right. Sinister Roots, the second book in the Island of Fog Legacies series, will be on sale August 20th as planned. And for a short period only starting today, you can buy the first book, Unicorn Hunters, for a special low price of $0.99 (usually $3.99).

This offer won't last forever, so get it now if you haven't bought it already!

Yes, Sinister Roots is officially finished and ready to go. I did the final edits last night, and today I prepared the print edition. For the first time in years, I'm actually ahead of myself and not rushing around at the last minute.

The main reason I'm ahead of myself is because the manuscript I sent out to beta readers turned out to be my most polished to date. In fact, some of the beta readers "complained" that they could only find a handful of errors. Ha! I did make a few larger changes, like rearranging a couple of chapters and expanding another, but mostly it was just a case of fixing typos. So I'm very happy with that. I must be getting good at this!

The novel came in at around 72,500 words, which is about 2,000 words longer than the previous one. Pretty close! I've already written an excerpt for the third book in the series, and this excerpt will appear at the end of Sinister Roots. More on that in another post after launch day.

I've had some really nice feedback so far, and I'm looking forward to continuing Travis's adventures. I expect to write Book 3 throughout the rest of August, September, and October, with a plan to publish it before Christmas 2016.

Are you an Island of Fog fan who hasn't read these new adventures yet? Oh, but you should! Everything is very familiar, and the original cast and setting will continue to feature quite heavily throughout this new Legacies series. While I'm about to write Book 3, I already have vague outlines for Book 4 as well. Get started now while Unicorn Hunters is only $0.99!

Unicorn Hunters(Island of Fog Legacies #1 -- currently $0.99*)It's been twenty years since the events surrounding the Island of Fog. Twelve-year-old Travis Franklin, son of Hal and Abigail, is about to become a shapeshifter like his parents -- and just in time, because the old soothsayer predicts trouble brewing. There's been a spate of poaching in the area, and when Travis witnesses a unicorn snatched from its herd, he leaps into action in his brand-new guise as a wyvern! Only thing is, his rescue attempt doesn't go very well... [image error] [image error] [image error] [image error]

* Note: If the price still shows as $3.99 at your favorite store, please wait for it to update to $0.99. Most updates are completed within a few hours, but sometimes it takes longer depending on where you are in the world.

Plotting the next book

While beta readers work their way through Sinister Roots (Island of Fog Legacies #2), I'm already plotting the third book in the series.

Each book will be a standalone read for those who want to dive in at any point in the series. There won't be massive cliffhangers that frustrate impatient readers! Everything will be neatly tied up at the end of each book. That said, there's always going to be some degree of continuation. Without giving anything away, there's a small plot thread at the end of Book 2 that will hang over into Book 3, and this has already made up my mind about something fairly important: the POV.

I usually write from the main character's point of view. This was Hal throughout the Island of Fog series, and it's Travis for the first two books of the Legacies series. But Travis will take a backseat in Book 3, at least with regards to POV. He'll be there throughout, but he'll be a secondary character. There's a very good reason for this, but you'll have to read Sinister Roots for those answers. ;-)

Book 3 will be about Melinda, who is Robbie and Lauren's eleven-year-old daughter. It's her first time as a shapeshifter, and Travis will be along to support her. But make no mistake, she'll be calling the shots. I already have a title and completed cover for this book, but I want to wait until Sinister Roots is released before going into details. Be patient, and all will be revealed in September.

For now, though, rest assured that I'm already steaming ahead with the next adventure in the series, and I think it's going to be interesting and refreshing to delve into someone else's head from time to time. It's a departure from the single-POV format, but it opens up possibilities. Heck, Book 4 might even delve into varying POVs. What if we use Travis as the main character, but we also follow Melinda and perhaps another friend as they split up and get in trouble? Basically, I'm prepared to hop from one head to another, a few chapters at a time, if the story requires it.

I think this looser narrative approach, coupled with the fact that Travis has to be a different kind of shapeshifter every time, is really going to keep the series fresh.

I'm often asked how far ahead I plan. I usually have the next book on my mind while I'm still writing the one before, but I don't plan much beyond that. So while Legacies Book 2 is finished apart from some tweaks, Book 3 is already plotted, and I know nothing about Book 4. I expect details will start emerging when I'm about two-thirds through Book 3.

How do I decide on the plot? That's a tough one. It's usually just a "feeling" of where I want to go next. I remember when I'd finished Island of Fog that the next one would involve dragons and tunnels and lava. After completing Labyrinth of Fire, I wanted to head up into the mountains and visit a demon in a temple, and thus Mountain of Whispers came about. Then I wanted to be underwater... and then I had a hankering for a zombie-style runaround... and then ghosts... and then werewolves... and then a creepy prison... and finally a castle. And that's really about it. Nothing clever, just a hankering.

The plot of Unicorn Hunters actually goes back quite a few years. I always wanted to do an illegal zoo story with legendary beasts of fantasy. I originally intended this to be a standalone spinoff Fog novel set a few years into the future, and after I wrapped up the main series, it seemed like a good time to write it. But then I started thinking... What if we skip forward twenty years and have this as the first book in a brand new series starring the son of Hal and Abigail? And so it was.

The idea for Sinister Roots came to mind as I was writing Unicorn Hunters. I won't give anything away, but I was subconsciously planting seeds for myself to grow and reap later on, so by the time I was ready to write Book 2, some of the plot was already laid out. (See what I did there? Planting seeds to grow and reap? Grim Reaper? Get it? Sigh. That pun was a happy accident, I promise.)

Which all leads me to Book 3 in the Island of Fog Legacies series. What's it all about? In a previous post, I said "it will involve fish." Hmm. Well, it's true that I was seriously considering going back underwater. As it turns out, I'm not sure that fish will play a part at all. Water? Absolutely. Fish? Not so much. Well, maybe. Anything is possible, I suppose. But when you see the title and cover for Book 3, fish will not spring to mind as the central theme!

Look for Sinister Roots (Island of Fog Legacies #2) on August 20th, and in the back you'll find a teaser for Book 3. Those readers will be the first to know what Melinda will be running up against toward the end of 2016.

Sinister Roots is finished!

Last night I wrote the final chapter of Sinister Roots. And this morning I wrote a short epilogue. So the book is now finished! I want to re-read and polish the last five chapters, but that won't take long at all, and then I plan to read the entire book in Kindle form to see how it flows and to pick up more typos.

This means that the book will be ready for beta readers sometime this weekend. Who's interested? There are a few requirements for those who want to offer up their services:

You must be able to read the book in two weeks and get back to me with feedback. Obviously I want an overall opinion and comments about anything that doesn't work or could be improved, but I'm also looking for simple typos. That said, I'm not expecting you to find things for the sake of finding things.Assuming you like the book, you must be able and willing to offer a nice review on Amazon on launch day. This is essential to me. Reviews definitely sell books, and I would go so far as to say that a nice review and rating on launch day is actually more important than beta-reading feedback and typos. (Naturally the same review can be added to Goodreads as well, if you're a Goodreads member.)

That's it. Two simple but important rules beta readers. Apply now by email please to keith@unearthlytales.com using the email address that I should reply to you at.

Sinister Roots is full of weirdness. The title is apt in so many ways, and I want to thank my author buddy Brian Clopper for coming up with it. I'd tried other titles beforehand, and they just didn't work. Right now, I need to think of a title for Book 3, because I want to include an excerpt in the back of Book 2. I already know that Travis will be going on a new mission with Melinda, the daughter of Robbie and Lauren. She's going to be a shapeshifter for the first time, and she'll need help.

I had a lot of fun with the creepier aspects of this book. What with the Grim Reaper and other deadly specters, and then the forest itself... Yes, it's been a blast. I pushed the boat out a little, exploring the origins of the white-tentacled plants like the one at the Prison of Despair, and other things. Even so, I feel like there's more to say on the subject. Maybe a future book? We'll see.

Sinister Roots will be published in August, exact date to be announced. Before then, I'll be putting out a few teaser ads. :-)

Back from vacation, and hardly a word written!

I spent the first half of June vacationing in England and Wales. We flew out on May 29, stayed at my brother's house in the south of England for a week, visited another brother at his new house in the south of Wales, then drove north to a rented cottage in the Snowdonia region of Wales, then returned to England for a wedding. Surprisingly dry and sunny weather throughout, fantastic scenery around Wales, and a one-hour drive on our last day to Highclere Castle, otherwise known as Downton Abbey.

I should add that we ate a lot of food. Fish and chips, steak and ale pies, full English breakfasts with proper sausages and bacon, crumpets and scones, Scotch eggs, and the rest. All the good stuff. Oh, and plenty of wine gums and decent chocolate. All these things are sadly missing or hard to find where we live in the south-east corner of America, where people think grits are good and tea should be served cold.

Don't get me wrong. I love where I live in Chickamauga, Georgia. There's a lot to like here. But there's a lot I miss, too. In case you don't know, I grew up in England and moved to the USA in 2001 at the age of 31, so I've been here 15 years now. Usually when someone asks me if I miss England, I say "Not really" and shrug it off. This time it's a little different, and it might be because of the fantastic scenery we enjoyed throughout Wales -- literally everywhere we drove, from Llanelli in the south to Porthmadog in the north, was worthy of being on a postcard. And we had a great time driving around the Downton Abbey area back in England, all those narrow roads and tiny "villages" tucked away in the hills.

I'd fully intended to finish Sinister Roots, the second installment of the Island of Fog Legacies, during this vacation. I'm about two-thirds through and expected to have plenty of time on my hands. But shortly after I arrived in the UK, I realized I couldn't concentrate enough to write, so I decided I'd just read through what I'd written so far and get that edited. I didn't do that either! Basically, I did very little writing at all. All this means my planned June publication is delayed, and I'm now looking at July or August. But hey, I'm allowed some time off, aren't I? I'm still faster than George R. R. Martin. :-)

I will say, though, that I'm really liking what I've done so far. Of course, as with any book, I'm nervous about what readers will think of it. What if it misses the mark? It's certainly unique, a single and fairly straightforward mission that turns into something entirely different. And over halfway through, Travis, this time in chimera form, finds himself in a position where he could either go on home and report a major problem for the adults to deal with... or he can deal with it himself. What do you think he chooses? Yes, he does what any hero would do and tries to deal with the situation himself. And to be fair, this is no foolhardy decision. Time is against him, and he has no choice but to intervene. So he's turning out to be a real hero worthy of his famous parents Hal and Abigail Franklin.

With about two-thirds of the book written, I'm into the final act and know exactly where I'm going. But one not-so-small detail is undecided, and I'm giving that great thought. I might even write two endings and see how my beta readers choose. This decision doesn't impact the preceding story at all, but it does impact Travis's future and the overall tone of the finished novel. So it's quite important.

One thing I find interesting and kind of exciting is how varied these Legacies adventures are (and will be throughout the series). Not only will Travis be an entirely different kind of shapeshifter each time, but it seems he has a different companion as well. A shy imp named Nitwit followed him about in Unicorn Hunters, and his best friend Rez accompanies him in Sinister Roots. And I can confirm that Book 3 will see Robbie and Lauren's daughter Miranda joining him. She'll be a shapeshifter too, though a little younger. I suspect Travis, being older and more experienced, will naturally try to shield her from danger... but she'll pooh-pooh his gallant effort and aim to show him she doesn't need his help, which will lead to trouble. I don't have a name for Book 3 yet, but it will involve fish! Make of that what you will.

One final note. Regular readers of my monthly short stories will have noticed that both May and June's entries are missing. That was a conscious decision rather than pure laziness on my part. I've had so little feedback about those monthly stories, and they take up so much of my time, that I'm benching the idea for a while. I'll still write a story occasionally, but not on the 15th of every month, a deadline that honestly has become a bit of a chore. I found that I'd have to break off from novel writing for almost an entire week to write a short story, which was a little too much of a distraction. At some point, I plan to release some of the later short stories (plus a few other unpublished ones) as an Island of Fog Chronicles ebook.

Okay, now back to editing. Move along, nothing to see here.