Richard Raley's Blog, page 44

Montage Powers Activate!

Every once and a while I like to collect the reviews that have come out for my novels over the past few months and give the bloggers some credit.



THE FOUL MOUTH AND THE FANGED LADY

Bending the Spine (5 Stars)

"Raley’s new world of mancer’s, who are people that have the ability to manipulate a certain element, is such a nice break from other paranormal and urban fantasy books I have read lately. I liked the rules Raley placed on his characters when it comes to the use of their powers. I also like that everything has a new twist, like vampires: they are not fangy, sparkly, or cloaked in black. No, vampires were all together new in The Foul Mouth and the Fanged Lady in a really cool but gross way."

Boekie's Book Reviews (5 Stars)

"If you’re looking for a FANSTATIC novel to read, look no further because The Foul Mouth and the Fanged Lady by Richard Raley is one that you will never be able to put down! Personally, I have never been a fan of vampire and fantasy books, but this one was far beyond any I have ever read. It wasn’t your average “Twilight, sparkly, romance” story, which, in my opinion was a good thing LOL"

Offbeat Vagabond (5 Stars)

"This book truly took me by surprise. It was so unique and hilarious. I laughed so hard, I had tears. I love the idea of King Henry recollecting all he knows through videotapes for the Asylum. This would make a very fun TV series. I would love that. It is action packed and surprisingly heartfelt at times."

Paranormal Itch (4 Stars)

"King Henry is bad ass and I would definitely love to read more about his world. Please go out and get this book...its awesome!"

Books, Cats, Movies, and Coffee (4.5 Stars)

"After a while the story really sucked me in and I read until 3AM to finish it. If you want to laugh until you cry (I did!) ...I can recommend this book to all Urban Fantasy fans out there."

THE FOUL MOUTH AND THE CAT KILLING COYOTES


Offbeat Vagabond (5 Stars)

"I am a huge fan of this series. It is so entertaining. Raley definitely has a way with words. I already have some quotes highlighted in this book I plan to live by. And again, the mancy idea is so fresh and cool. It is nice to have some fresh blood in the supernatural world. As I said with book 1, Raley's idea of vampires is so unique. And his take on Weres is just as original and fresh. I love it! So if you are looking for something truly unique and out of the box, start this series today. You won't regret it."

THE BETROTHAL


Gabbing About Books (5 Stars)

"OMG!!! Seriously this was a much needed read! I have never cracked up from a book so much! I was hooked from the first chapter and the rest of the book just continued to reel me in! I mean how can you not love footnotes, and FYI these footnotes are not your average foot notes which adds to the book!"

Cocktails and Books (3 Stars)

"This book is at times clever, witty and funny. However, there are a couple of literary devices the author employs that I found unnecessary. The use of footnotes is distracting but luckily seems to abate as the book goes on. The author also talks directly to the reader, something that could create a bond between writer and reader, or do just the opposite. 50% of the time I appreciate it, the other 50%, not so much. One of these literary devices would probably have been enough to give the novel a little originality but both were too much for me."

The King Henry Tapes FAQ

Seeing as the second book in the series is now out, I figure you all have questions and instead of being barraged with emails, here's to expediency!

Q:  What's with the Pulpanormal tag you gave to the series?

A:  It's a catchy marketing gimmick but it also comes out of the Urban Fantasy and Paranormal genres being so beaten down by clones of clones of clones.  My attempt to carve out my own niche in the nichey niche.  The King Henry Tapes returns to the heart of Urban Fantasy and brings back some of that original spirit.  It's pulp, it's got some New Weird blood running through it, but it doesn't go overboard.  It's a healthy mix of the old creativity and the new vampire/were/fae/magic school stories that readers want.  Hence Pulpanormal.

Q:  So how many books are going to be in this series anyway?

A:  If all goes to plan then there will be 12 books in the series.  Actually this number is pretty concrete based on carrying "Session" numbering from book to book.  If one did math--which I do not recommend--they'd find that at 8 sessions per...okay, I'm not doing math either.

Q:  I did the math and it actually adds up to 13 books worth, so are you stupid or something?

A:  Stupid or crafty, you'll have to decide when all this is over.

Q:  Are you going to keep up the two storylines of "School" and "Shop" throughout the whole series?

A:  Yes, however the "Shop" stories will gain prominence and complexity the further along we go.

Q:  What's up with the mixed up mess of a prophecy at the end of "Fanged Lady"?


A:  It's not a mess, it's just coded.  Have fun.


Q:  Where's my Annie B?

A:  She'll return, keep reading.

Q:  Are some of the classmates like Welf, Pocket, or Valentine going to pop up in the "Shop" story?

A:  Yes!

Q:  Where's Susan Price at?

A:  Read and find out...

Q:  How did you come up with King Henry?

A:  There's a lot of influences for this series.  Lost for narrative structure, any Tarantino film for absurdity, I went with a straight up Magic System that's Epic Fantasy in style, but the idea for King Henry actually came from a reread of Wheel of Time.  Wait, what?  Yeah, really.  Wheel of Time has these magic items called ter'angreal that have all these weird uses and I thought...gee, a character that was using nothing but a bunch of ter'angreal would be interesting...

Q:  But what about the obvious Harry Potter link?

A:  Right, that was next.  Over ten years and still America didn't have itself an American Wizard.  We had Dresden but he has more in common with DnD than Potter.  What really worked with Potter was that you begin young and he grows.  That's what I wanted.  Plus...that meant I got to write a School Story, which are the most absolutely addicting type of story in existence. (Just ask Buffy, Ender, Veronica Mars, Kvothe, Peter Parker, the X-Men, or Percy Jackson to name a few)

Also, outside of the wizard school aspect...Potter is such a classic Hero's Journey Goody Goody  that I just had to mess it up with a tire-iron.  No kid raised in a cupboard is going to turn out that nice.  So I made the screwed-up version of how that character would have actually been.  It helps that I live in a part of the United States with a high Redneck to Normal Person ratio and grew up with plenty of kids just like King Henry.

Q:  So you're not like King Henry at all?

A:  No, it's important for people to realize that just like Christian Bale isn't Batman (we think) no I'm not King Henry.  He's a character I put on and kind of perform.  We do have some similarities...um...um...well, I'm a 20-something white guy living in Fresno, there's that...

Q:  Why name him "King Henry" of all things?

A:  This starts with the vampires and the realization that I wanted the female vamp in the series to be a famous person from history.  I thought about it for a few days...  Cleopatra?  Too old.  Helen of Troy?  Even older.  Joan of Arc?  No, but...  Anne Boleyn?  Bingo!  Once Annie B was in then our hero had to be named King Henry.

Q:  When does the next book come out?

A:  When it comes out...  My goal is one a year.  But, I'm an Indie.  So my writing time can hugely fluctuate.  Cat Killing Coyotes was set for March 2012, then I got a huge respiratory infection and was in bed for four weeks so it got pushed back all the way to May.  Then editing went insanely awesome (no rewrites) and we ended up back in March.  I can't give you readers exact days, just guesses.

Plus, while King Henry is my current main focus I do have other ideas I like to pursue.  I have SIX fully outlined stand-alone highly-awesome Fantasy novels that are just sitting in a queue waiting for me to write them.  They deserve loving too.

So, best guess:  one a year.  Which means Book 3 = some time in 2013.  Estimate.  No promises.  Don't chain me down!

If you're a King Henry fanatic your best bet to get more than one a year is spread the word and actually create more King Henry fanatics willing to buy the books and gnash their teeth along with you when I work on side projects.

If you have any other questions, post a comment already.

Brought To You By the Letter "F" -- May 1st

Foul Mouth and the
Fanged Lady will be
Free on Kindle the
First of May.





Please spread the word, tell your friends, your family, even your cat...especially your cat, you don't want to make it mad...

Conquering Hero Releases

"Conquering Hero" is a short story set in the King Henry Tapes world.  It takes place after the School Story of "Cat Killing Coyotes" and revolves around December Evaluations.  Nice little slice of life story, told in third-person, and using a couple of POVs we don't get to see in KHT.

If you love all things King Henry, you'll love this as well.  If Welf is your favorite character...first of all, what is wrong with you?  Second...your guy's pride might be getting stomped on a bit.

Conquering Hero by Richard Raley at Amazon

One Year and Three Books Later

It's almost been a full year since I officially joined the ranks of Indie-dom and began publishing digitally over Amazon's KDP.  It's been tough, fun, terrifying, and sometimes even glorious.  The BETROTHAL began it all for me on April 24, 2011, the first book I finished writing and one that probably would have never seen the light of day if KDP didn't come along.

The BETROTHAL ended up my experiment book for practically everything.  Learning how to finish a project, editing a project, formatting a project, making a cover, putting it through the system, seeing it utterly bomb and not realizing for a few months that hey, you need to tell people about it and get people to review it, silly writer.

Doing promo work has been the largest task with the biggest learning curve over the year.  It's not fun, it's not what I like.  I'm a mad scientist in his lab, not a salesman.  It's not in my personality.  But still, for my pretties I do try.  Book bloggers remain the bane of my existence.  Nice ladies all (99% of book bloggers are female...probably because they kill the males after mating with them) but the entire system is chaotic...I felt my small bit of German DNA calling for codes, standardization, and order as I looked, searched, and hunted for review policies.  It has a lot in common with trying to decipher forgotten languages, especially if the blogger in question has a thing for curly fonts.

The EATERS began in June 2011 and I must bashfully say hasn't moved much yet but I promise I will get to it eventually...

This is because of THE KING HENRY TAPES, the first book releasing in September 2011 and the second  March 2012.  My Urban Fantasy series is still struggling to get its name out in a crowded, if insanely popular, genre, but has received highly positive marks from everyone who has read it.  I know eventually people will find it and they will buy it and they will devour every novel I put out with King Henry Price in it over the next decade...but waiting...knowing you're sitting on the next big thing...it can be agonizing.

Looking forward to the next year in my Indie career it's going to be different.  Three novels in one year...that won't be happening for Year Two.  I've got nothing sitting here to edit or ready for publication.  The table I print and stack finished chapters on is completely bare.  This year will be about writing.  About starting and finishing my next round of novels and stories.

Because I'm still as hungry as when I started this...and I'm not stopping for nothing.

Tomorrow is the Day

King Henry Price, honored and learned graduate of the Institution of Elements, has settled back into his normal life, running his Artificer shop, creating new designs, selling old ones, and ignoring the occasional explosion when testing goes haywire. He's been minding his own business...only when he happens across a bunch of bullies picking on a woman, he can't resist the opportunity to smash faces, can he?

King Henry never expected the bullies would be part of the Coyote Nation, he never expected that he could be starting a war, and he surely never expected one of his lost sisters would be on the other side.

Jordan Josephine Price...found you at last.

The Foul Mouth and the Cat Killing Coyotes will be released officially tomorrow, March 13th (I spit on you, bad luck numbers), though you'll probably be able to grab it later today if you check for it, since who knows how long Amazon's KDP will have something "in review" or not.  Probably not even the designers.

There's also some price changes going about.  The Foul Mouth and the Fanged Lady is going to be at 99 cents for awhile to try to attract every possible reader and...it will be having 4 free days from the 13th to the 16th!

Now I need to write the third one...

Cat Killing Coyotes: The First Sentence

Now that we're almost into March and the release of the book is fast approaching, I suppose it is time for me to start the promo, pump up, pimping posts again.

So here we go...first sentence of The Foul Mouth and the Cat Killing Coyotes:

There are days when I wake up in the morning and I just want to kill someone.

Release date is still moving around, think early April at the latest!

New Covers for FOUL MOUTH...again

It took four versions for me to end up with a BETROTHAL cover I can tolerate until I'm making the big bucks and can pay for true awesomeness on the artist front, so I suppose it's not really a surprise that I'm now on attempt number four with the FOUL MOUTH books as well.  This time, I actually like what I've done and I think they'll hold in there until the coming millions of readers actually find the series.
Fanged Lady:
Little King Henry:

We'll launch the Cat Killing Coyotes cover next month sometime in the pre-release build up.

Foul Mouth Second Drafts

All writers have different methods to get to the end of the road.  For me, the second draft is all about readying the novel for the rest of the process.  It's about coming back to the work with fresh eyes after a break, looking at it objectively, marking the parts where there can be additions, marking the parts that need rewrites, and removing the junk a first draft will always have.


Reverse Readthrough - I don't write Foul Mouth books chapter to chapter.  I write the "school" story first, then the "shop" story, and only mix them later.  When I start editing I put the emphasis backwards, starting with "shop" then going through "school", to try to balance the focus.  Usually this readthrough has some typos fixes, the occasional inspirational or clarifying sentence, but nothing large or earth-shattering.Passivity - probably the most important part of editing, this is a word by word search of certain phrases that hold back and create a flat boring read.  I'm looking for "was", "wasn't", "weren't", "were".Words That Suck - also a word by word search but here it's just my personal pet peeves, the words that the writing mind uses as a crutch but the editing mind should nix.  I don't like "thing", "obvious(ly)", "sudden(ly)", "because", "no doubt", "well", "stare", "smile", "mumble", etc."That" Edit - one word.  Often worthless and unneeded, get it out of there.  Character Edit - For "Fanged Lady" this was focused on Annie B, only her scenes, trying to focus on her dialogue and focus on the scenes from her point of view.  For "Cat Killing Coyotes" it will be T-Bone.Chapter-By-Chapter Edit - The first time I get to read the novel as the reader would, chapter to chapter, switching from "school" to "shop".  Here's where I mark addition places and rewrites for the third draft, probably more typo fixes too.

Foul Mouth 2's First Draft is Done

Talk about a weight off my shoulders.  Of course I had BETROTHAL even before I got around to FOUL MOUTH, so it's not strictly the sophomore jinx, but this was a tough one.  Mostly because so much of what's going on is set up work for the later novels in the series and the contained plots keep blowing up in our hero's face.  How does one write a novel about mistakes and failure without the novel itself becoming a failure?  It's a conundrum, but one I think solved.  There's a lot of great scenes in this one.  Maybe thee outright funniest scene I've written so far in my writing career.

Next up will be three to four months of editing.  Maybe one rewrite on a chapter.  Nothing huge.  Which means...May?  I guess.  Hard to have a firm release date as an Indie.

The Foul Mouth and the Cat Killing Coyotes, coming soon to a Kindle near you.