Hugo Negron's Blog - Posts Tagged "trolls"
Forging of a Knight and other new quests
IN THE BEGINNING…
The idea for this series started a LONG way back – grade school, as a matter of fact. A fascination with historical books on fantasy and mythology, and being influenced by works written by J.R.R. Tolkien, H.P. Lovecraft, the Hildebrandt Brothers (does anyone remember their foray into writing fantasy, Urshurak?), Robert E. Howard, and a host of others, gave way to an interest in writing about it. All of these writers created their own worlds, and populated them with unique cultures, creatures, heroes, and villains. My first tinkering was definitely not up to par. If anyone can recall the old Thundarr cartoon, my initial stories strongly paralleled it!
Over time the adventures of Qualtan grew into the occasional hobby – writing a new chapter here, removing an old chapter there. As reality kicked in (school, jobs, bills, worrying about money to PAY those bills, etc.) the stories become lost in piles of old memories and were only rediscovered when I moved out on my own. At one point, they ended up as trash, being thrown out as a childhood exercise in boredom. But for some reason, I went back to that trash can a few hours later and retrieved them, thinking they deserved a better review. The creative spark was rekindled, and the process of writing a new chapter here, removing an old chapter there, began again.
Fast forward years later, and my wife took an interest in my stories as I poured through what was now an enormous pile of paper, notebooks and random notes. Despite the years of on and off again writing, the stories had now grown with me and their basic premises were memorized. As I talked about them, and how neat it would have been to have seen them in novel form, she asked me why hadn’t I ever tried to do anything with them. I thought, camaan, to go through them all, make sense out of all the details, maturate the storylines, why bother?
Why not?! was the answer.
Why not, indeed? So I took the first story, and over a year, polished, updated, and clarified. I hired an editor to do clean-up, an illustrator to draw the cover, and found lulu.com in order to bind, prepare and set up for online epub and hard copy accessibility.
So now we are nearly at the “go live” stage – sure, there’s magic, monsters, and strange, wonderful places to visit within this first tale, but there are also lessons in friendship, trust, expectations, and that little naiveté all of us can have when starting off into something brand new, that almost always gets tempered with a slight dash of disappointment, a pinch of cynicism, and a spoonful of real vs. assumed expectations. This is something we can all relate to, whether you’re carrying around a mystic sword or not.
And this is only the start…both here and on my facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/Forging.of.a.... I'll be adding snippets on the characters, updates on what is coming next and some great giveaway contests as well as we lead up to the release of the first book in the Forging of a Knight series...
The idea for this series started a LONG way back – grade school, as a matter of fact. A fascination with historical books on fantasy and mythology, and being influenced by works written by J.R.R. Tolkien, H.P. Lovecraft, the Hildebrandt Brothers (does anyone remember their foray into writing fantasy, Urshurak?), Robert E. Howard, and a host of others, gave way to an interest in writing about it. All of these writers created their own worlds, and populated them with unique cultures, creatures, heroes, and villains. My first tinkering was definitely not up to par. If anyone can recall the old Thundarr cartoon, my initial stories strongly paralleled it!
Over time the adventures of Qualtan grew into the occasional hobby – writing a new chapter here, removing an old chapter there. As reality kicked in (school, jobs, bills, worrying about money to PAY those bills, etc.) the stories become lost in piles of old memories and were only rediscovered when I moved out on my own. At one point, they ended up as trash, being thrown out as a childhood exercise in boredom. But for some reason, I went back to that trash can a few hours later and retrieved them, thinking they deserved a better review. The creative spark was rekindled, and the process of writing a new chapter here, removing an old chapter there, began again.
Fast forward years later, and my wife took an interest in my stories as I poured through what was now an enormous pile of paper, notebooks and random notes. Despite the years of on and off again writing, the stories had now grown with me and their basic premises were memorized. As I talked about them, and how neat it would have been to have seen them in novel form, she asked me why hadn’t I ever tried to do anything with them. I thought, camaan, to go through them all, make sense out of all the details, maturate the storylines, why bother?
Why not?! was the answer.
Why not, indeed? So I took the first story, and over a year, polished, updated, and clarified. I hired an editor to do clean-up, an illustrator to draw the cover, and found lulu.com in order to bind, prepare and set up for online epub and hard copy accessibility.
So now we are nearly at the “go live” stage – sure, there’s magic, monsters, and strange, wonderful places to visit within this first tale, but there are also lessons in friendship, trust, expectations, and that little naiveté all of us can have when starting off into something brand new, that almost always gets tempered with a slight dash of disappointment, a pinch of cynicism, and a spoonful of real vs. assumed expectations. This is something we can all relate to, whether you’re carrying around a mystic sword or not.
And this is only the start…both here and on my facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/Forging.of.a.... I'll be adding snippets on the characters, updates on what is coming next and some great giveaway contests as well as we lead up to the release of the first book in the Forging of a Knight series...
Forging of a Knight is here!
Hello everyone - thanks again for your support on this endeavor. I am happy to share with you that Forging of a Knight is at last complete and available for purchase!
The title will be available now through lulu.com where I have added a 15% discount for the paperback version. You can go to their website and search for Forging of a Knight or use the link below:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?ty...
The epub version will be available shortly.
The title will be listed in major bibliographic databases and should become available on Amazon.com within 6-8 weeks. It will also become available on online retailers worldwide such as Amazon.com, Baker & Taylor, and Barnes & Noble.
Should any wish for a signed copy, please reach out to me directly for payment/delivery instructions.
Any questions, please let me know - again, thanks to everyone - the Forging of a Knight series is just beginning!
- Hugo
Forging of a Knight
The title will be available now through lulu.com where I have added a 15% discount for the paperback version. You can go to their website and search for Forging of a Knight or use the link below:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?ty...
The epub version will be available shortly.
The title will be listed in major bibliographic databases and should become available on Amazon.com within 6-8 weeks. It will also become available on online retailers worldwide such as Amazon.com, Baker & Taylor, and Barnes & Noble.
Should any wish for a signed copy, please reach out to me directly for payment/delivery instructions.
Any questions, please let me know - again, thanks to everyone - the Forging of a Knight series is just beginning!
- Hugo
Forging of a Knight
ePub version is available!
Forging of a Knight is now downloadable!
For $3.99 you can get the ePub version of Forging of a Knight for Adobe digital editions. Currently available at lulu:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/HugoN
Availability for the Barnes & Noble Nook Book Store and iBookstore soon!
For $3.99 you can get the ePub version of Forging of a Knight for Adobe digital editions. Currently available at lulu:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/HugoN
Availability for the Barnes & Noble Nook Book Store and iBookstore soon!
Forging of a Knight is now on Kindle!
Forging of a Knight is now available on the Kindle!
For $2.99 you can download the first in the Forging of a Knight series!
For $2.99 you can download the first in the Forging of a Knight series!
Book Review in for Forging of a Knight!
Thanks to the great people at Fantasy Book Review for their wonderful review of Forging of a Knight! You can check it out here:
http://www.fantasybookreview.co.uk/bo...
http://www.fantasybookreview.co.uk/bo...
Thanks to all!
I just wanted to give a quick "shout out" and say thanks to the 466 people who entered my giveaway for free copies of Forging of a Knight!
To those five entrants that won, books will be shipped out shortly! I hope you enjoy the story, the characters, and the first of the Forging of a Knight series! Feel free to let me know what you thought!
Also wanted to say thanks to local libraries in Bartlett, Schaumburg, and Elgin, IL for carrying a copy!
To those five entrants that won, books will be shipped out shortly! I hope you enjoy the story, the characters, and the first of the Forging of a Knight series! Feel free to let me know what you thought!
Also wanted to say thanks to local libraries in Bartlett, Schaumburg, and Elgin, IL for carrying a copy!
Video trailer for Forging of a Knight!
Happy holidays to one and all! As this is the time of my birthday, I'm doubly excited - although not for the gifts, since I usually get the proverbial one gift for Christmas AND my birthday! Ah well....
...just to share, I have added a video trailer for Forging of a Knight on my Goodreads profile. I just posted it on YouTube, and although we aren't talking big budgets, animations, and actors/actresses here, I think for a first time out its not too bad...check it out, let me know what you think!
...just to share, I have added a video trailer for Forging of a Knight on my Goodreads profile. I just posted it on YouTube, and although we aren't talking big budgets, animations, and actors/actresses here, I think for a first time out its not too bad...check it out, let me know what you think!
Forging of a Knight is a new sponsor for Spellfury!
Hey all - anybody ever watch Spellfury? Spellfury (the fantasy live action webseries) has been seen over 6 million times online and aired Nationally in Canada on Global TV. You can find them on youtube as well or at www.spellfury.com. The cool thing is, Forging of a Knight will be one of their new sponsors! The next episode of Spellfury will have a commercial aired for Forging of a Knight! You will have to check it out!!
Forging of a Knight nominated as a finalist in the Eric Hoffer 2013 book contest
Hello all - just wanted to share the great news - Forging of a Knight was awarded as a 2013 finalist in the Eric Hoffer book contest this year. This means it fell in the top 10% of books submitted, which is a win in of itself.
More details on the contest can be found at:
http://www.hofferaward.com/HAcategory...
More details on the contest can be found at:
http://www.hofferaward.com/HAcategory...
Book Two...
Hello all - its been a hectic 1/2 of the year - especially with a little 1 year old baby keeping me on track, but Book Two - Forging of a Knight, Rise of the Slavekeepers, is on the role! My own illustration has been sent to fantastic artist Lora Lee to continue her great work on the series covers, and my editor Erin Potter has sent me back my manuscript with her edits. Once I review, its off to the publisher and out of the gate! Book three is already in rough draft, in order to complete the FIRST trilogy, for further fleshing out around the end of the year, although that depends on the schedule my son decides to give me, as he's a pretty tough boss... 8 )
All set for Gen Con this August - I was hoping to have Book Two at the ready, but that may be cutting things too short, so at the least I will have pictures/flyers with the cover for 'the Slavekeepers to present. Considering the actual arm/leg armor that I will be wearing, Im hopeful for a less than humid near end to summer around that time...
I do plan on having a giveaway here for the second book once everything is all set.
And just as I complete this very last sentence, a little voice is crying for dinner so its off to the races, or at least in my case, to the crib...!
All set for Gen Con this August - I was hoping to have Book Two at the ready, but that may be cutting things too short, so at the least I will have pictures/flyers with the cover for 'the Slavekeepers to present. Considering the actual arm/leg armor that I will be wearing, Im hopeful for a less than humid near end to summer around that time...
I do plan on having a giveaway here for the second book once everything is all set.
And just as I complete this very last sentence, a little voice is crying for dinner so its off to the races, or at least in my case, to the crib...!
