Matt Heppe's Blog, page 12

Countdown(s)

Nine days left in the Kindle/Nook Giveaway contest. There are three ways to win:

1. Spread the word about the contest.
2. Spread the word about Eternal Knight's release.
3. Write a review of Eternal Knight  and post it on a blog or a bookseller's website.

Check out the link for details.

Twelve days left until the Eternal Knight Book Release Party. It will be held on June 4th from 2-4 PM in the Wissahickon High School Audion. All are welcome!

One month (June 24th at 7-9 PM) until I do a book signing at the Doylestown Bookshop.

By the way...
Eternal Knight has raised $600 for WEOF and Cure CMD so far, and we're just getting started!

Upcoming Events

Ok, so the blog posts have been a bit tame lately. I have been pouring all of my efforts into promoting Eternal Knight. On Sunday I gave my first newspaper interview. It was great fun. I'll make certain to link it  when it comes out. Besides that I have been contacting loads of book bloggers about reviewing Eternal Knight. The problem is that most of them have long backlogs of books to reads. Several have agreed to do  reviews, and most will come out over the next two months.

On June 4th I am hosting a book release party at Wissahickon High School. The party will start at 2 PM in the Audion lobby with live music from singer-songwriter John Conahan. We'll eat baked goodies and mingle while John performs before moving into the Audion itself for a book talk by yours truly. After I blather on for a bit and answer a few questions, we'll continue our snacking while I sign books and count all the money we have raised for Cure CMD and the Wissahickon Educational Opportunities Foundation.

On June 24th I will be doing a book signing at the Doylestown Bookshop. We'll start at 7 PM with a reading and Q+A session and then move on to the signing. Doylestown is a great town with loads of restaurants and neat shops to visit. Make an evening of it!

I just found out today that Eternal Knight is available in NOOK. That's the last big distributor I was waiting for.

Off I go. Have to sell some books.

By the way, your reviews are really important. If you liked Eternal Knight, please consider writing an Amazon review. And if you are really motivated you could cross post on B+N and Goodreads. Eternal Knight will only succeed with the support of its readers.

Thank you,
Matt

Kemp Says

My friend Kemp recently wrote a nice article about being a part of the creative process:

I HELPED MAKE THIS!

He also had a nice article written about him:

Polk Lawyer in Tune...

Eternal Knight wouldn't be what it is without Kemp. Take a look at the articles and give him some great feedback.

And, by the way, Eternal Knight is now available from Apple.

Interview and Contest

I was recently interviewed by CherylAnne Ham at her Making Words Happen blog. It was a fun experience to be the interviewee as opposed to the interviewer. Stop by her blog and say hello. She has a lot of great writing advice. She also does reviews on Good Book Alert. 


I'm still plugging away at promoting Eternal Knight. I'm getting a lot of nice feedback, however the challenge seems to be getting the word out. How do you get attention for your book when there are so many others out there? I have been writing to a lot of book bloggers in the hope of getting more reviews. I also have my book release party on June 4th at Wissahickon High School, and it looks like I'll be doing a book reading and signing at the Doylestown Book Shop on June 24th at 7PM. I'll confirm the date soon as I am trying to see if July 1st will work.

Don't forget my Kindle/Nook/Amazon gift card contest. The link is at the top of the page. It is easy to enter and the prize is terrific.

New Eternal Knight Map

Steven Sandford just sent me this map he created for Eternal Knight.

It is fantastic! This map will replace the current Eternal Knight map and will be used in the rest of the novels in The Orb series. Steve also did the maps for Christian Cameron's historical novels. Check them out here. By the way, Christian writes some of the best historical fiction you will ever read.

Just a reminder that I am running a Kindle/Nook/Amazon Gift Certificate contest. Entry is simple. You get raffle tickets for writing a review of Eternal Knight and/or simply telling other people about the contest and the novel's release. Piece of cake. Check out the link at the top of the page for details.

If you enjoy Eternal Knight please let your friends (or enemies, hell, just tell everyone) know. Word of mouth is a novel's best friend. This is especially true for an independent novel!

All the best,
Matt

Five Star Review!

Eternal Knight just received a five star review from Good Book Alert! What a great way to send Eternal Knight into the world. It was also the first review I have ever received from someone I truly didn't know. Friends might tell you that they like something you've done, but it is so hard to truly accept what they are saying at face value. After all, they are your friends and they don't want to hurt you.

I'd like to thank everyone who stopped by for the virtual release party last night. I had a lot of fun. It felt good to officially release Eternal Knight.


We had four free book winners from last night:
Twitter: Susan Kaye Quinn
Facebook: Karen G
YouTube: Adam Heine
All commenters: Brennan W

I'll get your books out to you ASAP!

Dont' forget the Kindle/Nook/Amazon Gift Card Contest. It runs until June 1st.

Goodnight!

Virtual Release Party

Welcome to the Eternal Knight Virtual Release Party!

For the next two hours I will be on my blog, Facebook, and Twitter, answering questions and giving away prizes. Prizes in the form of free books! I'll also introduce my Kindle/Nook/Amazon Gift Certificate contest.

For now, let's start with introductions. I am the guy who is incredibly excited to be here tonight because I am officially releasing my novel, Eternal Knight. 

The first contest:  I will randomly pick a winner from everyone who comments on my blog. All you have to do is introduce yourself, tell us the name of your favorite novel (or character), and tell us why you like that novel (or character). If you are a writer, you can tell us about your favorite project. The winner gets a signed copy of Eternal Knight. If you are overseas, you'll get an ebook copy.

Keep refreshing your screen. More to come!

The BIG TICKET contest of the night is the Kindle/Nook/Amazon Gift Certificate Contest. Hit the link to check it out.

Free book contests are going to involve:
Twitter
Facebook
Youtube

The Youtube free book contest: I'll randomly pick a free book winner from everyone who comments on the Eternal Knight trailer one of my student made for me.

The Facebook contest requires you to "spread the word" about Eternal Knight on Facebook. You have to make a Facebook update that announces that Eternal Knight  has been released. One free book to a random winner. Post below and let me know that you've Facebooked the EK announcement.

The Twitter contest is the same as the Facebook contest. Spread the word. But instead of announcing it here, you have to include the #EternalKnight hashtag. One free book to a random winner.

All of the contests (except for the Kindle/Nook one) will last until midnight EST, Monday, May 2nd.

If it is before 9 PM, refresh your screen to see new comments while you are visiting.

Release Eve Thoughts

Eternal Knight has been a project 23 years in the making.
That's a helluva long time, Matt, some of you are thinking.
Yep. 
I started Eternal Knight in college. I had two primary inspirations for starting a novel...
1) I had just finished a fantasy trilogy that I was supremely disappointed with. I had read the author before, and liked his books. But this trilogy felt mailed in. I never felt any threat for the main characters. They were just too powerful (and too good) to die. After griping about it for a while, I thought it was time to put up, or shut up. Could I do better?
No, I will not tell you who the author was.
2) My second motivation was Star Wars. I have always believed that Luke Skywalker should have turned to the Dark Side. I'll save my defense for this proposition for some other time. It did, however, give me the start for a novel. I would write a fantasy novel in which the "Luke Skywalker" character would turn to the Dark Side.
Did I just give away the most important plot element of Eternal Knight? Nope! The book has changed a lot in 23 years. The world is the same, the underlying threat is the same, but the story is nothing like it was back then. 
 I won't take you though all 23 years of writing Eternal Knight. (You're welcome.) I'll just say that the early years were marked by tremendous doubt that I had the skill to write a fantasy novel. I kept comparing myself to JRR Tolkien and realizing that I could never write like he did. And if I couldn't write like Tolkien, I couldn't write fantasy. 
Half way through Eternal Knight I gave up and write a science fiction novel. Voila! The problem of having to write as well as Tolkien was eliminated. Unfortunately, the sci-fi novel was not good. The story was fine, but the writing was not. But the experience did help me grow as a writer. It also showed me that I could finish a full-length novel. 
With renewed confidence, I returned to Eternal Knight. I loved the story too much to let it slip away. And, with more maturity, I realized that there was no requirement in the fantasy genre to write like Tolkien. With the help of  some great critique partners, I managed (with many fits and starts) to complete Eternal Knight. Over a period of several years I sent three volleys of query letters out to agents, each without success. 
I waited and waited for "the call". It never arrived. But I couldn't bear to let Eternal Knight die on my hard drive. I had too much faith in it. So I decided to self-publish. It wasn't an easy decision. When you decide to self-publish you paint a great big target on your chest. After all, you have just declared yourself worthy of publication. You have just ignored all of the gatekeepers in the publishing world. And when you declare yourself worthy, you have to be prepared for those who are going to take aim at you. 
And so I find myself here, releasing Eternal Knight to the world. I couldn't be happier. And before I go further, I must say that I couldn't have done this alone. I thought of reprinting my acknowledgements page here, but decided against it. I want the people on that page to have the experience of reading their names in the book. But to everyone who has helped or encouraged me...
Thank you!

Eternal Knight Trailer

One of my (fantastic) students created this Eternal Knight commercial. Thanks, Anil!

Perfect timing! The Eternal Knight virtual book release party is this Sunday, May 1st, from 7-9 PM EST. I'll be giving away signed books and revealing the rules for a Kindle/Nook/Amazon gift card contest.

Eternal Knight Commercial

One of my (fantastic) students created this Eternal Knight commercial. Thanks, Anil!

Perfect timing! The Eternal Knight virtual book release party is this Sunday, May 1st, from 7-9 PM EST. I'll be giving away signed books and revealing the rules for a Kindle/Nook/Amazon gift card contest.