Michael McClung's Blog, page 4

Cover reveal #2: The NEW Thief Who Spat in Luck's Good Eye

Behold! (that's me trying to make an eye joke) The second Shawn King cover for the series re-release. When I first saw the covers I told him they were so good I wanted to eat them. His response was, paraphrased, 'I don't approve, but you do you.'

Cover Reveal #1: The NEW Thief Who Pulled on Trouble's Braids

So as you folks know, the Amra Thetys series has been picked up by Ragnarok Publications and will be re-released this year. It'll be available to bookstores and libraries and suchlike, even! As part of this new chapter in the life of the series, the books have gotten a new cover treatment, thanks to Shawn King, cover designer extraordinaire! Here is the new cover for "Trouble's Braids" just to

Hard post

There may be a few of these over the next few weeks. We'll see. This one has to do with Sword Monk #2 - Weaving Steel, which was recently released on Amazon. Frankly, I think it sucks, so I'm pulling it. Longer form is like this: I got in a rush to complete the instalment before the preorder was due to go live and released a book I'm not proud of. I should have delayed it. For those who

Genre and same-old same-old: random pondering

Occasionally I see reviews (not my own yet) that say something to the effect of "while this story doesn't bring anything new to the genre..." and it always gets me to thinking. Is it the default opinion out there of reviewers that a genre story should always be pushing boundaries? And if so, when did that happen? I sort of understand the mentality when it comes to sci fi. I mean, really the whole

A craft post

Recently I received an email from a reader (hi Steven!) who is in the process of wrestling his own first novel into some sort of of obedience. He wondered what sort of plotting techniques I used. He mentioned snowflake methods and beat sheets and other assorted alchemies that I have heard of, but know nothing about beyond the fact of their existence. Not being one to waste words that can be

Paranormal romance/erotica has invaded my beloved Sword & Sorcery, and I'm pissed off

First let me be clear: I have nothing against paranormal romance or erotica. Hell, I've got nothing against dinosaur erotica. If that's what scratches your itch, then scratch away, my friend. No, what makes me angry is when authors of paranormal erotica/romance stuff their obviously non-Sword & Sorcery books into the Sword & sorcery categories at retailers such as Amazon, iBooks and Barnes &

Blood Tempered has been released into the wild

So Blood Tempered is live. What's Blood Tempered, you ask? It's the first book in a five part series called The Sword Monk Saga It's super-uber sword & sorcery pulp, and unabashedly so It's multiple POV, and not 1st person. That's a new thing for me It's $2.99 It's available at all the usual suspects

Here's the big thing I'm working on next

Yes, I'm still hard at work on the Amra Thetys series. I'm also putting out the first book of the Sword Monk saga in a couple of weeks--June 6th is the release date for that one. And I've got a couple of longstanding projects that are puttering along as well (Comes the Conqueror, Tarot Quest). But this is the next full-length novel series I'll be putting out: It's urban fantasy, set in

The Book That Wasn't There

There are now 32 people in the whole wide world who own The Thief Who Wasn't There. They're the only people who will, until October. That's when Ragnarok Publicationswill re-release the first four Amra Thetys books, with awesome cover art and professional editing. So, you know, in case you were wondering why you can't buy book 4 and stuff, that's why. And also you should totally sign up for the

Amra 5 snippet

***Minor spoilers for Book 4 below*** “Right, then, let's see what a mage packs when he goes to hells.” I stuck a hand in his pack, and was met with a sticky, tacky residue of something that seemed to cover everything inside it. “What the hells got in here?” I asked, pulling my hand out and wiping it on the rag. He coughed slightly and shifted himself higher in the bed, then leaned back