John R. Phythyon Jr.'s Blog, page 21

THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER Map Reveal

As I hope you’re aware, The Sword and the Sorcerer, my latest novel, releases Christmas Day. That’s just eight days from now! Woot!

Among its nifty features, this book has something I haven’t put in my previous novels — a map! I’ve been thinking about one for the Wolf Dasher series, but I just haven’t done it. But I did contract one for The Sword and the Sorcerer, and I’m very pleased with the results.

Here it is — the map of the Known World:

The map is the work of Anne Patterson, who took a very rudimentary design and made it look, well, fabulous! This color version will appear in the eBook editions of The Sword and the Sorcerer. A black-and-white version will be in the print edition.

The Sword and the Sorcerer is available for pre-order now through Smashwords. Click here to read more about and place your order!

Still Sick, but “Passion Play” is Free

It’s Friday morning, and I’m back in the doctor’s office again. That today is Friday the 13th could not be more appropriate. I feel absolutely cursed.

I can’t work for more than a few hours at a time. I’m totally lethargic and have to take frequent naps. I have terrible night-sweats. My fever comes and goes, making it hard to concentrate on anything for long.

This is not who I am. This is not who I want to be.

Moreover, I’ve got work to do. For the second straight week, I’ve not been able to capitalize on the promotions I’ve been running, because I’ve just been too tired to do all the hustling necessary. Plus, there was all last week’s work I had to catch up on.

In the good news department, I did get a lot of last week’s writing done – articles for the newspaper, some marketing blurbs, a couple emails. And I managed to finally finish Chapter 38 of Roses Are White.

But I am sick of being sick. It’s Christmastime, and I’ve got work to do.

Oh, well. “Passion Play” is free again today as part of my December Friday Freebie promotion. Click the link to get yourself a free book. It’s Christmastime. Someone should be enjoying it.

Click here to download “Passion Play” for free.

THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER Available for Pre-Order

I’m very pleased to announce that The Sword and the Sorcerer, my new fantasy novel, is available for pre-order from Smashwords and its affiliates. If you follow the link below, you’ll be able to place an order for the new book, which releases Christmas Day. Then, on the 25th, the novel will automatically be delivered to your eReader device. So, after all the presents from Santa Claus are opened, you’ll still have one more gift (except it won’t exactly be under the tree).

The Sword and the Sorcerer tells the story of Calibot, poet laureate to the Duke of Dalasport. He has just about everything he wants in life until his estranged father — the Known World’s most powerful sorcerer — is murdered. Calibot finds himself the recipient of a magical sword and a quest to gather his father’s body and lay it to rest. He wants nothing to do with either. Reluctantly thrust into a mad game of revenge and political assassination, Calibot is forced from the warm confines of the duke’s court to the cold terror of a world where everyone wants what he has and will stop at nothing to get it.

Click here to pre-order The Sword and the Sorcerer from Smashwords for just $4.99.

***

If you missed the 99-cent sale on State of Grace, not to worry. You can still get it at reduced priced. Today and Thursday, it will on sale for $1.99 as part of Amazon’s Kindle Countdown Deals program.

Snatch it up now, though. The original Wolf Dasher novel goes back to regular price (a mere $2.99) Friday morning at 8am. Buy it today, and you can save a dollar!

NaNo Uh-oh: How NaNoWriMo Wrecked Me

It didn’t end well. In fact, it ended very badly.

As regular readers of this blog know, I participated in National Novel Writing Month for the first time this past November. I decided to use the event as a catalyst to finish the first draft of Roses Are White — the third book in the Wolf Dasher series. I had 12 chapters done when the month began, and my goal was to write a chapter a day, five days a week, with a view towards finishing the book by November 30. On the two weekend days, I would plot the coming week’s five chapters, so nothing could slow the actual writing process.

It seemed like a good idea at the time. It seemed like a good plan.

The thing with NaNoWriMo is it takes a lot of time and dedication. Making yourself sit down and write those words every day requires a certain . . . obsession. And obsession is something I know about. I’m mildly OCD, and, when I get it in my brain to do something, it’s difficult to knock me off-course.

Ordinarily, that’s good. Writing a novel is a huge undertaking, and obsessing on it actually gets me to the finish line.

As that final week of NaNoWriMo rolled around, though, two things happened. First, I’d hit a real flow on the book. I was coming down the homestretch into the big finale, and my brain was on fire. I could see “The End” right out there in front of me, and it was so very close. I was thinking about the book all the time.

Second, time was running out. I could see from the way things were going that there were going to be more chapters than days left. At a pace of one chapter a day, I would come up well short of the end of the book by the 30th.

In addition to being obsessive, I’m also pretty competitive. (I was an award-winning game designer prior to becoming a novelist.) It doesn’t matter that NaNoWriMo isn’t actually a contest. There is no prize for winning. But I was in competition. I was competing against myself and against the clock, and I saw no reason I should lose.

Now, I knew no matter how hard I worked I wouldn’t actually get done on the 30th, but I figured, if I put my mind to it, I could get pretty close so that I only actually went a day or three over deadline. Then I could brag to myself (and maybe on the blog) about how well I’d done.

So I started writing two chapters a day. Sometimes it was only a chapter and a half, but I increased my word count from approximately 2500 words a day to 5000 words a day. To be sure, I had to do it in multiple sessions. I couldn’t just bang out that many words all at once, but I started using any free time I could find to write.

And it was Thanksgiving week. The children were all with their respective other parents, which afforded me extra free time.

Last Monday, I finished Chapter 37. I was two away from the finish. I was hoping to find enough time to write both of them on Tuesday, but I would have been happy with a Wednesday finish. Everything was lining up for me to hit all my writing goals for the end of the year.

And then on Tuesday afternoon I started feeling strange. My muscles were aching terribly. It was getting hard to think. I was short-tempered.

By mid-afternoon, I knew I had a fever. A long to-do list was only half-finished, and I couldn’t figure out how to get anything on it done. I drove my daughter to her doctor’s appointment and started writing Chapter 38 of Roses Are White on my laptop in the waiting room. It was slow-going. I didn’t get very far.

Refusing to fully surrender to my body’s cries for rest, I took the family out to buy a Christmas tree as planned. I was still trying to get a little work done afterward and was harboring delusions of maybe finishing Chapter 38 before bed when the fever erupted into a debilitating game-ender. I went to bed shivering, unable at first to get warm and then to get cool.

And that’s pretty much how I spent the next three days. I got up long enough to get people off to school and then went back to bed until it was time to pick them up. I barely ate. I went to bed before everyone else.

Over that time, my mouth exploded with a series of sores the likes of which I hadn’t seen since junior high and the number of which I had never experienced. I also developed a cough. There was a burning sensation in my chest that I couldn’t determine whether it was related to the cough or the sores. It hurt to eat. I lost weight.

The fever broke Friday, and it was like I’d woken up for the first time in 72 hours. I still didn’t feel well, but I gradually improved over the weekend. By this Monday, I was finally able to work again. I’m still not fully well, but I am convalescing, and I’m trying to strike a balance between taking it easy and making up for lost time.

A week after I began it, Chapter 38 of Roses Are White remains half-written.

The worst part was the new Wolf Dasher book wasn’t my only priority last week. I’m running sales on my other books for the holiday shopping season, and I’m trying to get the pre-launch work for The Sword and the Sorcerer done. All that takes time to do.

And then there’s my freelance gig as a local theater critic at a time where at least one new show is opening a week and my regular work as the ferryman of children here, there, and everywhere.

And it’s Christmas season. And we have to get the house ready for my parents to come visit.

There’s likely never a good time to get sick, but I picked a really bad one. I was like a race car coming around the final turn and heading for home but crashing before I got there. Only we’re not talking about spinning out and ending up on the infield with a thrown rod. This was like hitting the wall, flipping over three times, and exploding.

I hope to finish Roses Are White this week. It shouldn’t take too much. A lot of the fun has gone out of it, though. In addition to failing to complete it on time, there’s the bad taste of how it wrecked me. I suppose that’s not the book’s fault, though.

I’ll post again here when it’s done. I still want to write a NaNoWriMo wrap-up post.

In the future, though, I’m going to have to think carefully about participating in NaNoWriMo. It’s possible I don’t have the right temperament for it. I need to give myself room to breathe, especially at one of the most stressful times of the year.

Then again, you never know. Next November I may have forgotten about all this.

And even if I haven’t, I’m awfully competitive.

STATE OF GRACE a Kindle Countdown Deal

This week’s featured book in my holiday sale schedule is the original Wolf Dasher thriller, State of Grace! Meet Wolf for the first time as he journeys from the familiar environments of Urland and Phrygia into the strange land of Alfar — home of elves.

When his friend and colleague in Urland’s Shadow Service is brutally murdered, she leaves a dying clue that points to Alfar’s ambassador to Urland. But he couldn’t have done it. He was out of the country. Wolf must navigate an intricate web of assassination, betrayal, and zealotry, and he must act quickly. Failure means a devastating act of terrorism that will kill thousands of elves, topple Alfar’s government, and change the balance of power in the world forever.

A page-turning thriller that will keep you reading late into the night, State of Grace marries the best elements of a traditional fantasy setting with James Bond style in a satisfying brew of action and  adventure. Get it today for only 99 cents!

Click here to buy State of Grace from Amazon.com!

Want a print copy? State of Grace is part of Amazon’s matchbook program. If you buy the print version, you get the Kindle edition FREE! Give the print edition as a Christmas gift and keep the eBook for yourself!

Click here to buy State of Grace in print.

“Passion Play” Free Today

As part of my holiday discounting plan, I’m giving away one of my books for free every Friday up to Christmas. Is that the spirit of holiday giving or what?

Today’s selection is my short story, “Passion Play.”

Juliette’s way of life is in danger. Make that her very existence.

She’s a witch. She heals the sick. She makes crops grow. She helps people fall in love.

But not if Charles III can help it. The prince is about to ascend the throne of Cotreur, and he’s pledged his first act will be to outlaw magic. After all, it’s only practicable by women, and it sets one before the gods. It must come from The Dark One. Some witches are even said to be able to steal a man’s will during sex.

Juliette isn’t about to let a mad zealot of a king hurt her. She’s not going to give up her art to satisfy the twisted ideas of a religious extremist.

She’ll need an ally, though. Bishop Gerard has a much more reasonable view of things. He may be a church official, but he has a much more progressive view of women and magic than Charles. And Gerard doesn’t mind throwing off his vow of celibacy when the mood strikes him. Especially with Juliette. Perhaps she can use him to alter the prince’s plans.

Charming the bishop is no trouble. But if his pleas fall on deaf ears, if Charles won’t listen to reason, then Juliette will just have to try something a little more desperate, something a little more extreme.

Juliette will use every magic available to her – including sex – to preserve her position. If Charles insists on enacting his misogynistic laws, then he is going to fall victim to her passion play.

Originally released as “The Coronation of King Charles III,” “Passion Play” is a short story that examines the collision of religion and politics, of fundamentalism and feminism. Exciting, sexy, and tense, it follows one woman’s desperate pursuit of freedom from persecution. A taut thriller packed with page-turning adventure and thoughtful commentary on modern society, “Passion Play” asks, “How far would you go to protect your beliefs?”

Click here to download it free today!

BEAUTY & THE BEAST Kicks off Holiday Specials

“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!”

Yes, indeed. Christmas lights are up all over town, and local merchants have been doing brisk business. I’ve even got a good portion of my Christmas shopping done, which is a real miracle for me. I’m never this far along this early in December.

Since it’s December shopping season, I’m offering specials on my books from today through Christmas, culminating in the release of my brand new novel, The Sword and the Sorcerer.

Each week, one of my books will be on sale Monday through Thursday through Amazon’s new Kindle Countdown program. As the week goes on, the book will creep back towards full price, so, the earlier you buy, the better the deal you get (sort of the opposite of how the stores do it).

I’m starting this week with my recently released novella, Beauty & the Beast: A Modern Fairy Tale. Set in my hometown of Lawrence, Kansas, B&B tells the story of two high school seniors who wish their lives were better. When their mysterious new English teacher offers to help, it looks like they are going to get everything they’ve ever wanted. But wishes come with a price, and nothing is as it seems. A cautionary tale about obsession and appreciating what you have, Beauty & the Beast: A Modern Fairy Tale is my second foray into updating a classic story for contemporary times. It usually retails for $2.99, but it’s on sale today for just 99 cents.

Get it here.

Beauty & the Beast: A Modern Fairy Tale is also available in print for $7.99. The book is enrolled in Amazon’s Matchbook program. What does that mean? Buy the print edition, and you can get the Kindle version for FREE! So, you can buy the paperback for a friend or family member and wrap it up to put under the tree, then keep the eBook version for yourself. It’s like getting a present for a friend and for you.

Happy Cyber Monday shopping! Hope you get lots of good bargains . . . and that you make Beauty & the Beast: A Modern Fairy Tale one of them!

Going into Overtime for NaNoWriMo

I don’t think I’m going to make it before the clock runs out. I’m on the final drive for the win, but it would take some sort of miracle, Hail Mary play for me to type “The End” before NaNoWriMo runs out at midnight.

That’s disappointing, of course. I’ve been hitting all the goals I set for myself, so it doesn’t seem fair I won’t be able to hit the big one — finishing on time.

But finishing is just about a foregone conclusion. I won’t make it if I die today, but otherwise I’m virtually certain to complete Roses Are White. I’ve got about three chapters left. I’m never entirely sure how many chapters there are until I finish a book, but, based on where I am now, I’m guessing it’s only three or four.

I wrote 5800 words yesterday across two chapters. That really put me in striking distance. Everything is all set for the big confrontation between Wolf Dasher and the bad guy. My bet is there’s somewhere between 5000 and 7500 words left in this novel. It’s 10,000 at the absolute most.

I could probably finish today if I really put my nose to the proverbial grindstone. But Ohio State plays Michigan at 11:00, and Jill wants to go shopping afterward. Then there’s supposed to be a movie or two in there tonight, since it’s our last kid-free evening of the holiday. There’s no way I’m getting 5000 words written today. If I get 3000, I’ll be pleased.

So I’m going into overtime on NaNoWriMo. It’s my own fault. I should have written a shorter book. But it’s okay, I’ll finish it this coming week. The hardest part of publishing, the most enormous task — writing the first draft — will be done well before Christmas. Thank you NaNoWriMo for the inspiration.

And thank you for following along. This won’t be last post on NaNoWriMo or Roses Are White, but I want to thank those of you who’ve been sharing the journey with me by reading my blogs on it. That helped me keep up the pace. It felt like someone was watching, expecting results. I’m going to get to the end of this book in part because you were reading about the writing of it.

And, of course, if you’re participating in NaNoWriMo, I’d love to hear if you made it. Leave a comment below telling me how your project went. Did you finish? Are you close? Let me know!

THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER Goes into Pre-Sale

Sometimes things just line up perfectly.

Yesterday, I was working on getting The Sword and the Sorcerer uploaded to Smashwords. It won’t be available for sale until December 25, but, to set a pre-release date, you first have to upload the book.

So I sent the manuscript through Meatgrinder (Smashwords’s conversion software), ran into some formatting errors, spent an hour or so chasing them down and correcting them, and then uploading a corrected version. when it got through with no Autovetter errors, I crowed with pleasure.

And then I realized something — yesterday was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. That’s my traditional publication date. State of Grace was released the Tuesday before Thanksgiving in 2011. The following year, I published Red Dragon Five on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

I’d thought I wasn’t going to be able to do that this year. With the way deadlines had slipped, I was having to write off my traditional late-November publishing date. But, in a way, I managed to hit it anyway. I kept the streak alive.

The Sword and the Sorcerer is in review with Smashwords’s premium distribution program now. It should be available for pre-order through Apple, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo very soon. I’ll post here, and on Twitter and Facebook when it’s up.

In the interim, I’m thankful for a third consecutive Tuesday before Thanksgiving with a book going into the distribution system!

Getting to the End of NaNoWriMo on Time

It’s time to panic. It’s the last week of NaNoWriMo, and I am staring down the real possibility that I may not finish. This despite having hit my writing goals every week so far.

As you may recall, I approached NaNoWriMo from a slightly different angle. Rather than trying to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days, I am trying to finish the new Wolf Dasher novel, Roses Are White, by the end of the month. I had 12 chapters done when I started NaNoWriMo, and I’ve been trying to write a chapter a day every weekday in November. So far, I’m completely on target.

But, over the weekend, I mapped out what I have remaining in Roses Are White. I came up with 14 scenes/events that need to occur before I type, “The End.” There are six days left in November. Even if I did two scenes a chapter, I wouldn’t make it.

I haven’t bracketed all this into chapters yet, so I’m not quite sure how many I have left. (I intended to do that this weekend, but there were a lot of leaves to rake, and my brain was mush when I was done.)

It’s possible I might be able to pull it off. The children are all with their respective other parents this holiday, so there may be some extra writing hours available that would not normally have been there.

But the fact is after I write 3000 words, I’m pretty creatively tapped out for the day. And my outline seems to indicate there’s a lot more than 3000 words a day left.

We’ll see, though. I don’t like the Macy’s parade, so I can probably sneak in some extra time there. After that, it gets dicey. There’s football and turkey and Black Friday shopping, and The Wife wants to spend some time catching up on Season Three of Downton Abbey, so we’re ready for the Season Four premiere in January.

So here comes the home stretch. I’m gearing up for a serious race against time. I’m not sure I’m going to win.

How about you? Are you going to make it to the end of your NaNoWriMo project on time? Leave me a comment to let me know how you’re doing.