Steve McHugh's Blog: Steve McHugh - Writer, page 14

Prison of Hope Blog Tour: Day 3 Part 2!

That’s right, 2 in one day again. This second post is because I have an interview up on The Qwillery. It was a lot of fun to do, so go have a read.

As per usual… click the picture to be taken there.

Prison of Hope Blog Tour Day 3

Today’s blog tour sees me on The Pen Muse answering some questions about writing and my work. As per usual, anyone going over can enter a competition to win a $25 gift card.

Click the picture for the link.

Prison of Hope Blog Tour Day 2

Told you there would be a few of these. Today’s blog stop is on Books and Other Spells, where I discuss Creating Characters.

As per usual, click the cover.

Prison of Hope Launch Day

That’s right, today is the launch day for Hellequin Chronicles Book 4, Prison of Hope.

It’s already had some great reviews:

All round a magical outing and one that really leaves me singing the authors praises. Cracking. – Falcata Times

Okay, this was definitely a five star book. Steve McHugh definitely brought it with this fourth full-length book in the Hellequin series. Nate is definitely going into my top ten of serious bad*sses! – Bittenbybooks

Overall then a really great read, all of them, another strength being that you can read any one on its own, you don’t necessarily have to read in order. A series that I hope will run and run. – LizLovesBooks 

Links to buy the book:

USA

UK

I hope you enjoy it.

Prison of Hope – Sf Signal

And yep this is the second post of the day. I’ve also done a guest post on the wonderful SF Signal about writing mythology in Urban Fantasy. Click the cover to go take a read.

Prison of Hope Release Tour: Day 1

Tomorrow is the big day. The day that Prison of Hope is released for everyone to finally read. Over the coming few weeks I’m going to be on a blog tour, and i’ll be posting links and such here for people to go check them out.

We start with a guest blog at Long and Short Reviews, where I talk about critique groups. Anyone going there can take part in a competition to win $25 Amazon giftcard too.

 

You can still pre-order Prison of Hope HERE.

Bloodborne

I never played Demon Souls, or Dark Souls. People complained about how hard they were and how much time and effort they took to really understand the game. The difficulty didn’t bother me, I grew up playing 16bit games, but the time sink of 100s of hours was just not something I had time for.

I was never going to buy Bloodborne, primarily for the reasons above, but the combat looked quicker, the setting was stunning (I love old gothic Victorian era), and frankly it looked like the sort of game I usually enjoy. I’m glad I took the step.

Story wise, I have no idea what’s going on, I’ve read little bits of in game stuff (mostly notes about the town’s history), but the story is still unfolding. Normally I’m all about the story, but so far the setting and gameplay have held my interest.

The thing about Bloodborne is that it’s hard… really hard. But not unfairly so. If I died—and I have dozens and dozens of times—it’s my fault for not taking it slowly, for doing something stupid, or for being bad at the game. Those first few hours of death after death, slowly inching forward in the game’s opening level were occasionally frustrating, but more with myself than the game itself.

Every time you kill something, you get echoes, the more kills, the more echoes. But if you die, you lose it all, and the only way to get them back is to get to the place you died, and either find the stack of echoes on the floor, or track down an enemy who wandered off with it. So, there’s a big risk vs reward part to it, and several times, I died before getting back somewhere, losing those echoes forever.  

 

Then something clicks. The combat, the heavy and light attacks, the gun to parry, the dodging, it all comes together. The fact that you have to take on enemies one at a time, avoiding large groups, separating your enemies for easier pickings, is a bit weird coming from someone who played Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden, but once you get used to it, it’s glorious.

I’d played about 5 hours now, and gotten to the first boss a few times (even unlocking a short-cut, which is a godsend. And the ability to level up, which is even more of one). I’m yet to beat the boss, and there’s still a danger that if I’m not concentrating I could get killed by anything, but I can see me getting better and better. I’m getting used to the controls, to the world, to taking things slow.  But more than that, I’m loving every second I spend in the dark, disturbing world of Bloodborne.

Prison of Hope Reviews 2

Yep, I’m back with some more early reviews of Prison of Hope.

.First of all is a 5* review of Prison of Hope on Bitten by Books.

‘I cannot wait until the next Hellequin book comes out.’

http://bittenbybooks.com/prison-of-hope-by-steve-mchugh/

And then next up is a brilliant review on One Book Two:

“This series is a must read. The action, adventure and history keeps the reader engaged at all times. It is a story that incorporates the emotional side of the characters, their passion for justice as well as their conflict.”

https://onebooktwo.wordpress.com/2015/03/24/prison-of-hope/

Only 3 weeks until the book launches now. if you haven’t yet pre-ordered, you can do so by going HERE.

Prison of Hope: Reviews

Reviews are beginning to trickle in for Prison of Hope. And Liz Wilkins on her blog has given it a brilliant review, which you can go HERE to read in it’s entirety.

But here’s a snippet.

“Overall then a really great read, all of them, another strength being that you can read any one on its own, you don’t necessarily have to read in order. A series that I hope will run and run.

Highly Recommended”

Prison of Hope: Goodreads

Right now my publisher is running a competition on Goodreads for 20 people to win a copy of Prison of Hope. I should mention that only people living in the USA are eligible. Sorry about that.

 

Click the picture below to enter (which is as easy as clicking a button that says enter). Best of luck to everyone who takes part.