Michael McClung's Blog, page 3

How not to write a fantasy series

I do things, as a writer, that are not in my best interest. When you write a series, there should be a clear progression, an arc that bends toward a final conflict in the story's world, without much deviation. When you write a first person point of view series, you should never stray from that point of view, that character. These are not complicated guidelines, nor are they arbitrary. So of

A review of Graham Austin-King's Faithless

 I'm going to get a little personal with you here, guys. I've been really, incredibly poor for a couple of years now. Virtually everything I earn, after basic necessities, has been going towards getting my degree. Why am I telling you this in a book review? To explain why I don't do book reviews. Put simply, I don't buy books to read for pleasure, nowadays, because that's a luxury I've had to

Ye Olde Writing Update

So I've got two projects that I plan to finish by the end of February. Here's where we're at on both of them, and after: Prayers in Steel This is a rewrite/expansion of the Blood Tempered novella and its unreleased sequel, Weaving Steel. I'm going back and reworking the terse style and fleshing out secondary characters, as well as giving it a more 'epic' tone. It's sitting at about 48,000

Publishing and self publishing: more straight talk from Uncle Mike

I've got some more things to say. Once again, some of it won't be very popular, but I believe it to be true. Better you hear it from me than find out on your own. 1: Embrace the suck This is army speak for the inevitability of ending up in a situation that sucks, and the attitude that will see you through it. Complaining, time honored though it may be, will not extricate you from the

An important announcement

Hi folks, I've got some disheartening news to share with you this time around, I'm afraid. I've decided to take the rights to the Amra Thetys series back from Ragnarok Publications. The reasons are business-related, and boil down to this: I doubt I'll ever actually get paid the royalties due me for sales of the Ragnarok editions of the books. They seem to be in a pretty big mess over there,

November brings the fourth Amra book. October brings an apology.

Yes, it's finally (almost) here. Little did I know, when I wrote 'the end' at the end of The Thief Who Wasn't There, that it would take nearly a year and a half for it to reach readers. Much changed right around that time -- Trouble's Braids won Mark Lawrence's inaugural SPFBO competition, and I was offered a publishing contract. Both of these things were good things, of course. But handing

A little straight talk from Uncle Mike for new self publishers

I've got some things to say. Some of it won't be very popular, but I believe all of it is true. This only applies to fiction writers, and specifically fantasy and science fiction writers. If you don't agree with me, that's okay. I'm still right, though. 80% of what's self published isn't worth paying for. A lot of people like to compare the price of an ebook to the price of a cup of coffee.

Oh, look, the beginning of a new series!

A few years ago, my eldest started reading a series of books called Beast Quest. I was very happy he was reading, and fantasy, no less - but one thing bothered the crap out of me: It didn't seem to matter to him what order he read them in. It made no sense - how could he follow the plot if he read book five before he read book three? Or book seventeen before book nine? Then I actually read a

5 years, 100,000 free. Time to change tack.

I started self-publishing in 2011. I've made a little bit of money; nothing approaching minimum wage. But I've also had hiatuses and sabbaticals in the last five years. Still and all, I've had a lot of downloads. Especially free downloads. Across all channels, I've given away roughly 100,000 ebooks since 2011. Inarguably, this has resulted in a fair few people finding my work, and going on to

2016: What to expect, writing-wise, from moi

First off, there are two more covers to reveal in the Amra Thetys reboot, but instead of showing them here, I'll just direct you Ragnarok's Amra Thetys page. Luscious, ain't they? So in 2016, Book 4 of the Amra Thetys series will be released (The Thief Who Wasn't There), probably sometime around September. The other books will be re-released March-ish? When I know, I'll certainly tell you! In