Guy Antibes's Blog, page 8

A Boy Without Magic is in Editing. Here is the New Cover

In A Boy Without Magic, the boy, Sam Smith, finds a way to see magical things through a special glass. The cover depicts what happens in the book when Sam is able to see through disguises with his normal sight and know what the magical people perceive by looking through his spectacles. In this case an old woman disguises herself as a more attractive young woman.

The book itself it out for editing. I am still aiming for a late June release for the first book in the next series which, as you may notice from the cover is the ‘Magic Missing Series.’

 

Boy Without Magic – Still Pushing for June Release

One of my editors is on vacation in the second half of June, so I am under the gun to get the draft done and a few editing/grammar passes so I can hand the manuscript off to her. The release date may be a little tight, but I’m working on it.

Boy Without Magic is progressing. The protagonist is a bit different from my last three series, but not radically different. Sam is smarter than your average teenager in his world, but he does have substantial challenges that he has to overcome one way or another.

Thanks to all my readers for making the Song of Sorcery series my best selling series yet.

A Sorcerer’s Fist Released and the Beginning of a New Series

My editors outdid themselves! A Sorcerer’s Fist has been submitted to Amazon and is available now at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CZG9QZN/   I liked the way the final book in the series came out. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, and that is what my eyes behold. Thanks to all my readers for making Song of Sorcery my best selling series ever!

Coming up next is a new series: Magic Missing. Each title will be A xxxx Without Magic, with the first book being A Boy Without Magic.  Here is the blurb:

In the world of Mariopa, everyone is a magician. Even animals and plants use the ever present magical stuff some of the inhabitants call pollen to enhance their lives. The problem is, lightning went through Sam Smith’s little five-year-old body and burned out his ability to manipulate pollen. He became, in that life-defining moment, a boy without magic in a world filled with it.

Now I have to do some additional planning. I wrote the first few pages as a teaser in A Sorcerer’s Fist, but I’m still getting settled into the new place. The first book in a new series takes a bit more time since I have to create a new world, in this case, Mariopa, where Sam Smith lives. Like my last three series, this has a coming of age theme. We have a few chapters where Sam goes from age five to fourteen, when then the story spends more time with Sam.

Cover Reveal for ‘A Sorcerer’s Fist’ – May Release Still Looks Good.

The final cover in the Song of Sorcery series is complete. The manuscript is currently being edited, and we are still looking for a May release. Ricky’s adventures continue as the plot begins to coalesce.

Here is the cover. The statue of the fist is in the book somewhere.

 

Writing and Ricky, Trak, and Pol

I read an interesting review by Magnus Liber about A Sorcerer’s Rings on Amazon. He called my writing potato chips of the genre, meaning that my writing is snack food. I can’t disagree with him. The term I use is literary candy. Same thing. My fiction is meant to be an easy, quick, enjoyable read. Literary candy.

Magnus has my writing style down pretty well. He taught me a new term that I had to look up, Marty Stu. I’d never heard of that before, but Ricky, Trak, and Pol are indeed in the mold of Marty Stu, the too-perfect hero. They don’t start out that way, but they all ended up being a Marty Stu.  I also agree that I like to throw in romance and travel.

The travel part is where I generate places where conflict can occur. Readers will note that I use three mechanisms (among others) to induce interest. A change in locale, a new character, and putting people in peril. I will continue to do so, since such things interest me and that kind of thing makes reading enjoyable. It’s part of the flavoring I put into my candy.

I may not be able to deviate much from my style, but my next series will differ from Ricky, Trak, and Pol. The protagonist is a non-magician in a world of magicians. Everyone else has magic, but my guy. That automatically puts him out of the picture for a lot of things in his world. Perhaps I will have to turn him into a Marty Stu, but I hope not.  The idea came to me months before I spotted Christopher Nuttall’s Zero Enigma series. His series has a twelve-year-old girl find she has extraordinary powers as a ‘zero,’ a person who has no magical ability. I was disappointed that he had used a version of the concept that I had already been thinking about.  Actually, Song of Sorcery was meant to follow my non-magician series, but I decided to write Song of Sorcery first and wait a bit to see how Nuttall’s series panned out before working on my original idea.

I’m happy to say, his plot line did not end up matching up to mine. My protagonist does not attend a boarding school. The era is medieval rather than the 1600’s where my latest three series are based (The Disinherited Prince is more Rennaisance, actually). Ricky started out as a pariah and that changed by Book Two in Song of Sorcery. In my new series, the protagonist is likely remain a pariah, at least on some level. He is like a blind man in the society he finds himself, but he will find some advantages due to his unique circumstances.

I’m still working on the last book in the Song of Sorcery. When that wraps up, my next project will be the first book in the non-magician series and might take a little longer to publish. I’ve got a lot of worldbuilding to do and I have a new magic system to create. The new book will still be literary candy, but hopefully a different flavor from the others.

 

Finding A Sorcerer’s Rings on Amazon

I’ve had a few readers tell me they’ve had difficulty finding my latest book in the Song of Sorcery series. I found out why.  Morgan Rice wrote a gazillion books on The Sorcerer’s Rings. It is a middle grade fantasy, at least the first book in the series. Anyway, it always comes up first on an Amazon search on the search ‘A Sorcerer’s Rings’. My book may be on the second or third page. That might improve with more sales, but I have no idea if it will.

If you want to find A Sorcerer’s Rings, you can just put in ‘Antibes The Sorcerer’s Rings‘ and it should come up just fine. Enough people have found the book to buy over two hundred copies in the first few days. Thanks to you all.

I’ve just started on A Sorcerer’s Fist. More of the same coming your way in less than two months.

A Sorcerer’s Rings is Released

A Sorcerer’s Rings is now up on Amazon.com. The paperback book is about ready to go, as well. Here is the cover for the paperback. You can read the blurb if you’ve got a large screen. One more book in the Song of Sorcery series: A Sorcerer’s Fist. It should be out end of May, beginning of June.

The Song of Sorcery books have done well and it’s all because of readers who, I hope, like my books. Thank you all.

Warstone Quartet on Kindle Unlimited / A Sorcerer’s Rings Cover Reveal

The Warstone Quartet: Moonstone, Sunstone, Bloodstone, Darkstone, have been lightly edited for spelling and grammar and released on Kindle Unlimited. This is another series that can now be read for free for those who subscribe.

A Sorcerer’s Rings is currently in editing, anticipating an early April release. The cover is already done. If you haven’t noticed I’ve never shown Ricky’s face. It’s a theme. He is all yours to make up. The woman in the picture is not Princess PIra but a blonde version of Mara Torris. It is a confrontation that happens in the book.

The fifth and final book in the series is coming up next: A Sorcerer’s Fist.

 

A SORCERER’S DIPLOMACY is now released!

I’m happy to announce that A Sorcerer’s Diplomacy, the third book in the Song of Sorcery is now available on Amazon kindle. The paperback will be out in mid-march. If you’d like to get a copy you can at this link:  Amazon

Here is the blurb:

Back at Doubli Academy, Ricky finds new acquaintances and a new pastime. However, all is not bliss as circumstances converge making it impossible to avoid confronting his nemesis, Duke Noacci, the man Ricky suspects of killing his parents. While on a school break, he finds himself in the middle of two powers ready to go to war. Ricky must make life-altering decisions as he struggles to save himself and his new friends.

Getting Close to Release – Here is A Sorcerer’s Diplomacy cover reveal

The editing is about complete. The cover is done. Most of the manuscript technical work is finished. A Sorcerer’s Diplomacy is due out at the end of the week (sometime between February 22nd and February 26th.)

The book was fun to write especially a new character, alluded to in the first books is brought to life.

By the way, I’m already more than a third finished with book four, A Sorcerer’s Rings.