Gregory S. Close's Blog, page 2

Guest Post & Rafflecopter: L.Blankenship's "Disciple: Half-Omnibus"

Hi there!

Today joining us here on the Worthless Blog is another very worthy author, L. Blankenship. I once shared an author interview podcast with her and found her wise, witty and wonderful.

She has been kind enough to supply us all with an excerpt from her new release Disciple: Half-Omnibus. Like what you read? Enter  a Rafflecopter giveaway to win a copy of your very own (or go buy it on Amazon, here)!

Announcing the Disciple Half-Omnibus!Disciple is a six-part gritty fantasy romance by L. Blankenship -- Part IV will be out on March 1st. The Disciple Half-Omnibus collects the first three parts of Disciple into one hefty ebook and is on sale now at all major retailers!


Excerpt Snow still fell when Ilya shook me awake in the middle of the night. The patter of flakes on the overhead tarp blended with anxious whispers and sharp coughs. A pony puffed nearby and hooves shifted. 
“Ulf says stay close,” Ilya whispered in my ear. “Get the bedroll off and flat so nobody trips. Careful of Acorn, he’s right here.” 
I blinked and rubbed at my eyes and a whiskery horse nose nudged my cheek. Acorn shifted away as I struggled out of my bedroll and to my feet. I put my arm over his neck for balance as I kicked the heavy blanket off and tried to spread it flat. Puck snorted, close by too. 
The fire, half sheltered by our tarp lean-to, had lowered to glowing coals. Ulf and Sir Kiefan stood on the far side with their backs to it, one with bow and nocked arrow, the other with sword in hand. Kiefan asked something of the woodsman and he muttered a reply. Beyond them, the black forest waited, crusted by a layer of snow that glowed blue when moonlight fought through thin patches of the clouds. Tumbling flakes kept up a quiet patter as we all fell silent, even the ponies. 
Fear drove off the lethargy of waking so late, but there was nothing to see in the clusters of squat pine trees and thickets. Ulf and Kiefan moved a few steps apart, tense and alert. I wanted to ask what was wrong. 
Lantern eyes lit up beyond the fire, paced by, and vanished. A shape moved across a snow-laden pine branch. That coughing sound came again, from the moving shadow, and it was answered from behind me. 
Ilya, holding Acorn’s bridle beside me, whispered, “Mother Love, we’re surrounded.” 
I sidled closer to the middle of the tarp, though it meant letting go of the solid mass of the pony. Ther Boristan stood holding Puck. A few steps out from that side of the lean-to, Bjorn faced the forest with bow and arrow ready. Beyond him, another pair of eyes caught the light. 
“I could stoke up the fire,” Ilya raised his voice to a murmur. 
Ulf answered, as he was closest. “They’re not afraid of fire. Whatever you do, stay together. Stand and fight.” 
Back coverWar is coming. Kate Carpenter is only a peasant girl, but she’s determined to help defend the kingdom and its bound saints against the invading empire. Her healing magic earned her a coveted apprenticeship with the master healer; now she must prove herself ready to stand in the front lines and save lives. 
She’s not ready for the attentions of a ne’er-do-well knight and the kingdom’s only prince, though. This is no time to be distracted by romance — the empire’s monstrous army will tear through anyone standing between them and the kingdom’s magical founts. All disciples must put aside their tangled feelings and stand in the homeland’s defense.
Available at all major retailers

DISCIPLE, PART IV arrives on March 1st!  Get a reminder by joining L's mailing list
Or try out PART I for free! FREE at Amazon • Smashwords • AllRomance




                                   

Guest Post: Kristen S. Walker - Honoring the Dead

Kristen is wandering the mysterious realms of the internet to promote her new release, A Flight of Marewings.  She agreed to stop by the Worthless Blog and offer a Worthy Post (a nice change of pace around here from my less-than-worthy commentary).  Take a moment to check it out!  Then, take a moment to pick up her book, here!  --- Greg
Honoring the DeadOne of the major components of any human society is how we handle the milestones of our lives, mainly birth, coming of age, marriage, and death. Every culture has their own ways of celebrating these events. But often, they follow a similar form: people from the same family and community gather together, familiar words and gestures are acted out, and then often there is a lot of food while people relax and talk.

While most milestones are happy, death is often sad. Even when death was expected after a long and full life, there are people left behind who feel the loss of their loved one. Funeral rites are designed to honor the life that has ended and give some comfort to the bereaved. In many cultures, there is also a spiritual or religious component, tied in to their beliefs about the soul and what happens to it after death. A priest or another religious officiant may be involved to prepare the departed soul for their journey.

In A Flight of Marewings, death plays a role in the story because the main character Korinna loses her estranged father, the duke. One of her driving motivations is to please her dead father’s spirit. The culture is revealed through how Korinna and her community honor the death of Duke Basileos.

Deyonist Belief in the AfterlifeIn Seirenia, the majority religion follows Deyos, the Allfather. Deyonists have two different beliefs about the soul after death. The land of the dead is called the Dry Lands, because in their hot climate, the lack of water means death. The soul must navigate through these lands to find a resting place or to return to the world for rebirth, depending on their desire. People invoke the goddess of death, Meyrissa, to act as a guide for the dead through the Dry Lands. Legend tells that Meyrissa was the first soul to successfully cross over the eight streams in the Dry Lands and come back to the living.

However, many people also believe that their lost relatives stay behind to watch over their families. Most households keep a shrine to their ancestors’ spirits, pay their respects, and pray to them for guidance. A soul who is not paid their dues may become angry, sad, or restless, and haunt their descendants. However, when the ancestor spirits are appeased, they may help out their families in subtle ways or use signs to communicate with them.

Korinna sees her father’s ghost as a warning of his passing and because he is angry. Duke Basileos died of a mysterious illness, and his legacy is not secure. He continues to appear to Korinna and other characters for as long as he is unhappy with the state of the city that he once ruled. But he can’t speak directly to Korinna and tell her how he died or how she can take his title for herself, so she has to find a way to interpret his vague clues and figure out what he wants.

Funereal RitesEarly on in the book, Korinna hopes that her father’s funeral might send his spirit to rest. In Deyonist belief, the body is cremated and the ashes scattered over the fields or a body of water to return to the earth. For Duke Basileos, the ritual is huge, involving a procession of many politicians and other people who knew him as their ruler. The crowd winds through the city and then outside the gates, because laws say that bodies must be burned outside human habitation.

Mourners often wail loudly to show their grief, and if the family is small, then professional mourners can be hired to make sure that there is a large amount of noise at the funeral. Korinna is the last surviving member of her father’s family, but the details of the funeral are taken out of her hands, so she’s only a minor participant. Musicians also play at funerals, but not any recognizable songs: there is a cacophony as each player randomly plays without rhythm or key. Between the wailing and out-of-tune instruments, a funeral can be quite loud and obnoxious, but it’s beyond rude to complain about another family’s funeral.

A Personal Note
I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into Seirenian culture. When I wrote the story, I researched different kinds of funeral rites from many different real cultures to help me invent my own. At the time, it was mostly abstract for me. However, the day after I released the book, I lost my uncle to a short but difficult battle with cancer. Now, honoring the dead has become very real to me and my family. I may regret my decision to make Seirenian musicians play random notes at funerals, because songs were the biggest part of the celebration for my uncle, who was one of the best musicians in a very musical family. I often feel like emotions that cannot be put into words are expressed better through music. Most of my family members had a difficult time speaking at my uncle’s memorial service, but they were able to play beautifully. I’m sad that my characters can’t share the same kind of musical celebration.




About A Flight of Marewings
Korinna's life gets turned upside down when the ghost of her father suddenly appears. Her father was duke of Kyratia City and he wanted Korinna to marry his warlord, the foreign mercenary Galenos, and inherit his title--but the city's Council has other plans. When the Council denies Korinna's right to rule, she decides to join Galenos's mercenary company and tame a wild marewing in order to take the city by force. But people whisper that the late duke's untimely death was murder, an induced madness that forced him to dance himself to death--and now that madness is spreading. Can Korinna become a marewing rider and conquer Kyratia in time to save everyone?




About the AuthorFantasy author Kristen S. Walker dreams of being a princess with a flying horse, but she settles for writing stories for teens and adults. Her new epic fantasy novel, A Flight of Marewings, tells the adventure of a duke's illegitimate daughter who must stop her father's murderers--by taming a dangerous monster. A Flight of Marewings is now available in print from Amazon and digitally from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords and other ebook retailers.


To read a sample chapter or check out Kristen’s world-building references, please visit kristenwalker.net. You can talk Sherlock, horses, and crochet with Kristen any time on Twitter (@KristenSWalker) or Facebook.

Read In The Dark Sale at Genre Underground!

Hey there everybody (i.e. both of you reading this)!

The Genre Underground is a group of science fiction, fantasy and horror writers with quality works for sale this weekend, starting with a Black Friday sale.

There will also be an Ask Me Anythings (AMA) on Reddit's r/fantasy sub-reddit and an Ask An Author event on Facebook.

Reddit r/fantasy: http://www.reddit.com/r/fantasyFacebook Ask An Author: https://www.facebook.com/events/537430446351699/

Please stop by to support this great group of authors (including little ol' me)!


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http://www.genreunderground.com/readinthedark/

Check out the deals from authors like M. Todd Gallowglass (Tears of Rage Series, Halloween Jack), Christopher Kellen (Arbiter Codex, Sins of the Father) and more!


My book will be on sale also, the Kindle version going for 99 cents on Black Friday and reduced price all weekend (through Cyber Monday).

In Good Company?

I was just checking up on my Amazon page for In Siege of Daylight when this caught my eye:






What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


The Lies of Locke Lamora (The Gentleman Bastard Sequence)  by Scott Lynch Kindle Edition
4.3 out of 5 stars (379)

$0.99





Promise of Blood (The Powder Mage Trilogy)  by Brian McClellan Kindle Edition
4.6 out of 5 stars (88)

$1.99





Angelfire: Dark Angel #1 (Urban Fantasy)  by Hanna Peach Kindle Edition
4.4 out of 5 stars (65)

$0.99







That's pretty good company.  If I'm sailing in the same boat as these folks that makes me happy, even if I'm in a lower berth.



Cheers!

My Favorite Review

Any time someone has read my book and then takes the time to review it, I'm appreciative.  First of all, that's effort on the reader's part, and it often shows that there was some sort of connection with the book (positive or negative).  Secondly, it helps with exposure and credibility and assists other potential readers in deciding whether my book might be worth trying out.



But THIS review is my favorite.  Not because it is a five star review (although that helps), but because it is from someone that I very much wanted to enjoy the book as much as she did.






 Waiting for More, September 18, 2013



By 

Roger Barnhill





Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: In Siege of Daylight (The Compendium of Light, Dark & Shadow 1) (Kindle Edition)
Having read In Siege of Daylight, I am anxious to find the next books to see how this twist of characters mix and conclude. Loved the prose and didn't find the violence over whelming. A proud relative! Hey, relatives read too.



permalink to review on Amazon





Thank you, Mom!




In Siege of Daylight is still on sale for 99 cents - grab your copy here!

Only 99 Cents for 240k Words of Epic Fantasy (In Siege of Daylight Kindle version, this week only)

Just a quick note - adverts should be hitting the Twittersphere, GoodReads, reddit etc. soon, but In Siege of Daylight is on special this week for only 99 cents (Kindle only).



Click here to get your copy for only 99 Cents!



Reviews have been positive, including 4 Stars from Clarion, and mostly 4 and 5 star reviews from GoodReads, Readers' Favorite and Amazon.  Check out the free bit and click on that "buy" button if you like what you read.



If you've already read it, bought it, or otherwise acquired it and enjoyed it, please feel free to tweet, email, post and otherwise pass this deal along.  I greatly appreciate it!



Thanks!



-Greg

My WorldCon Interview - Gregory Sasquatch Close speaks!

Head on over to The Con Cast to check out my interview from WorldCon.  Among other things, the persistant mystery over my middle initial will be revealed!

Highlights of WorldCon 2013 - "I knew you'd come back... !"

Seriously, we all knew that there was more to him than money.  Even if there was lingering doubt about his heroic heart winning out over his cynical sensibilities, we saw that look Chewie gave Han when he was loading up his reward.  No one wants to spend an extended period of time in deep space confined to a tiny cockpit with a grumpy Wookiee.





Anyhoo... on to the highlights of LoneStarCon3 in San Antonio, TX.  A little late.  Busy here at the Jedi Temple, lately.




Table C-5 and C-4, aka Fantasy Lane
There was not a great deal of traffic at the Con this year, or so it seemed.  Maybe the difference lies in observing crowds as a part of the crowd (as last year at ChiCon) versus observing crowds as a vendor trying to sell books.  Suffice it to say that I had plenty of time to chat with my Genre Underground table mates at C-5:



M. Todd Gallowglass - author of Halloween Jack and Tears of Rage series.  I haven't read Halloween Jack yet, but I did greatly enjoy the first book in the Tears of Rage, First Chosen.  It's like a Malazan book in tone but with half the calories.



J.L. Doty - Jim has sold A LOT of books for a self-published author.  A lot.  Seriously.  Go check some out here.



And next door at C-4 is young author Ian Everett and his business manager/one man promotion team/all-around cool guy father, Bill Everett.* You can grab his book, The Mother of Dawn here.  I've got a nice signed copy which I hope to read very soon.



Eva Pohler, author of the Gatekeeper's Saga, was at our table on and off, and it was fun to meet her as well.  The Kindle version of The Gatekeeper's Sons is currently free on Amazon, here.



I also had a chance to chat with lots of fans and cool passers-by.  I can't say it was entirely productive in hard dollars, but I did get a lot of "soft dollar" value in networking and close encounters and linking up with other writers and readers. A special thank you to Brian Buhl for good conversation and bringing me Pepsi.  I really, really needed that Pepsi.



Also, I got interviewed by Clay Dugger of The ConCast.  He interviewed lots and lots of people, most much more impressive than I, so you should go check out his site and/or like his Facebook page.  I may or may not be referred to as Gregory Sasquatch Close in my interview.  You must listen to find out, when it's posted.



*Bill Everett (Honorary Hugo Winner for Best ConDad)




Close Encounters
Some of the more famous elbows I brushed up against included:



The legendary Robert Silverberg, who thought my book might be more valuable as a self-defense tool than literature, due it's size alone.  So noted, sir.



Travelling with the aforementioned Mr. Silverburg was Hugo Award-winning editor Andrew Porter, who was seriously distressed at the size of my book and the thought that it was but the first in a series of similarly sized tomes.



I consoled both Mr. Silverberg and Mr. Porter by telling them that the remaining books will only be 25 pages each.   Silverberg found that entertaining.  I eventually elicited a chuckle even from the chuckle-resistant Mr. Porter when I showed him my "Caution: Bend Knees When Lifting" warning sign for the book.  Overall, I rate the interaction a success.



Harry Turtledove came by, and I thanked him on behalf of my brother for writing about Roman legions trapped in alternate dimensions.  I also suggested that he supplement his "Past Hugo Winner" ribbon with an "Alternate Past Hugo Winner" ribbon.  I made Harry Turtledove chuckle!  Success again.



Brandon Sanderson came by and talked books and publishing a bit with Mr. Gallowglas.  He did make a point of saying that he "really liked my cover" (by the fantastic artist Mr. Mike Nash).  The cover actually received universal praise at the Con.  Thank you, Mr. Nash!



Dr. David Brin stopped by and discussed the film version of The Postman and Star Wars.  I smiled and nodded, but spoke little, not even to express how much of a fan my wife was of The Uplift Saga (note: do not forget to tell Dr. Brin how much your wife loved The Uplift Saga) or how I think The Postman is the best post-apocalyptic fiction work ever written (note: please, really, really do not forget to tell Dr. Brin how much your wife loved The Uplift Saga.  Seriously).



Hugh Howie was talking about publishing etc.  He was very nice.  He has sold a lot of books.  He is also some kind of expert on textiles, apparently.  I am also nice, but I have not sold a lot of books.  One day, I aspire to be both, much like Hugh Howie, although I have no ambitions in the textile business.



I saw George R.R. Martin while carrying about twenty metric tons of self-published epic fantasy novels but resisted the urge to drop one accidentally at his feet.  I always want to stop and say something like:  "Hi, thank you for reinvigorating Fantasy literature and inspiring me to finish the last few bits of my long-suffering novel."  Instead, I smile awkwardly and shuffle past.  Because, hopeless nerd.



Monday morning I got to say hello to Hugo-winner John Scalzi and his shiny Hugo.  It was pretty.  He was gracious.  I smiled awkwardly and shuffled away.  See above.



I discovered the r/fantasy reddit group (it's like reddit, but without the idiots) via their very cool fan table and the Drinks With Authors party that they hosted.  At this party, they had both drinks and authors simultaneously, as promised.  I gave away a couple of copies of In Siege of Daylight.  Hoping whoever won a copy brought some form of lumbar support or wheeled conveyence.


Folks Who Bought Stuff 
I also sold some books, believe it or not (feel free to buy one).  I'm sure the cover helped draw in some curious browsers, but being next to M. Todd Gallowglass, who is a consummate marketer and promoter of his books, certainly helped.  He also kindly offered discounts on his books for anyone who purchased one of mine and said very nice things about my writing. Watching him really helped me evolve my elevator pitch (more accurately, my walking by the table trying not to make eye contact with that desperate looking self-published guy pitch).



Selling was nice.  I like to make money, and I like to write, and earning money ensures that writing can remain a viable use of my time.  But, the thought of people picking up my story, reading it, enjoying it - that is what gave me a thrill.  I hope that everyone who bought it really does enjoy it.  And then, I hope that they really do review it!  :)




See you at LonCon nex year!


Well, maybe.  As much as I enjoyed being at ChiCon and LoneStarCon, it was not exactly a profit-making venture.  I met a lot of people, made some connections, and I learned valuable life lessons.  Much like an episode of G.I. Joe: Great American Hero.  But if I'm going to make the trip over the Pond, I will need to have sales justifying that kind of expense.  Right now, I don't.  I do have hope for the future, though.  We'll see what happens...

Last Day of WorldCon - Great Deals!

Howdy!



I will post my wrap up of LoneStarCon3 later this week after I return home and recover (i.e. hug wife and daughters for 24 hours straight - there may be dog petting and cat scratching in there too, but the hermit crab is probably not getting much snuggle time).



In the meantime - don't miss the opportunity to take advantage of these WorldCon deals:



KINDLE SALE!

The Kindle version is on sale for $2.99 for the rest of the day.  This is about 50% off the normal list price for the eBook.  Follow the handy link to get your copy at this great price:

http://amzn.com/B00D0TFNZK



WEIGHT ALLOWANCE SALE!

If you are at the Con and want a good deal, come on by Table C5 in the Dealer's Room.  I will be offering lots of discounts and special offers this morning before I leave.  This is your chance to get a nice signed/personalized copy of the paperback, and there are only so many left in the print run so come visit before Noon!



Safe Travels to everyone on their way home on this holiday weekend!

WorldCon 2013 Day Zero: Almost There!

I'm a little worried about leaving the family behind for so long, but I'm hoping to make the most of this opportunity.  As a matter of fact, I'm kind of hoping the experience turns out better than it did for this poor chap.  As I recall, after his torpedo impacted on the surface he followed suit and met his end (courtesy Lord Vader).  Perhaps I should choose my metaphorical gifs more carefully.



The cab will be pulling up soon, and the journey will begin...