Andy Peloquin's Blog, page 2

Mark Your Calendar: Darkblade Assassin is Coming Soon!

Boy, have I got some exciting news for you.

As youknow, since January, I’ve been hard at work on rewriting Darkblade Assassin(Hero of Darkness #1) for a mid-year relaunch. I wanted to update my first-everstory to more accurately reflect who I am as a writer NOW, rather than thenewbie I was when I first sat down to pen this story in 2014.

And soon,all my hard work will come to fruition, and you’ll be able to read what I canhonestly say is one of the best books I’ve ever written.

Are you ready?

Right now, the book is sitting in the hands of the editor, so it should be finalized within the next few weeks. Saying I’m “excited” would be an understatement—I’m absolutely thrilled that the big day will soon be upon us.

And that big day will be…

(DRUMROLL PLEASE)

Tuesday, JULY 6th, 2021

That’s right, we’ve got a mid-summer release to look forward to.

What’s funny is that this is almost EXACTLY 3 years after the original date that I launched the book the first time. I don’t know what it is about July…maybe it’s the bright sun outside that makes me optimistic, or the summer heat that gets my blood pumping.

But that’s something exciting to look forward to.

The new version is about 150% LONGER than the original, and it’s been overhauled, rejiggered, retooled, and given an update that makes it, as one beta reader put it, “night and day difference”.

Or, as another said, “it takes an ‘action adventure’ novel and turns it into a proper fantasy epic”.

The Hunter is very near and dear to my heart—and, I hope, to yours, too—so being able to bring him back in this new and improved incarnation is a dream come true.

Over the next few months, I’m going to be posting more and more about the release, including giveaways, sneak peeks, and so much more.

It’s an EXCITING time to be sure.

Your Turn: Which of the Hunter’s books did you enjoy best?

The Hunter’s story is going through an overhaul, but his original adventures were still HELLA fun. Which of the books from Darkblade Assassin to Justice did you enjoy most? Which parts of the story did you most love?

Comment below and share your favorite parts from the Hero of Darkness series. 

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Are You Ready to Be Creative?

Someone wise once said, “Never be without your little pad.”

The idea behind that statement is simple: always be ready for creativity to happen.

As someone who writes stories all day long, there always comes a certain point where I need to sit down and “turn on” the tap of imagination and creative ideas. If I don’t, these books would never write themselves.

I’d spend the day staring at a blank page or feeling like this:

So yes, it can often feel like I have to turn on the tap and be creative on demand in order to make progress in the book.

But the crazy thing about creativity is that it’s incredibly hard to turn off.

It’s insane how many sleepless nights I’ve had while ideas tumble around in my brain. How many times I’ve had to pull the car off the highway to write down some inspired thought. How often I have to interrupt some task like cleaning, cooking, or watching TV to jot down an important note. How consistently my brain will start thinking up things at the worst possible times.

My best ideas rarely come when I want them to. They usually happen when I’m physically engaged in an activity but my mind is free to wander.

I’ve learned that I ALWAYS have to be ready to write those things down when they come. I’ve got a voice-to-text app on my phone, a compact Dictaphone, a notebook, random documents on my computer, even text messages I ask my (beautifully longsuffering) wife and kids to send me—all ways to note the sparks of creativity as they strike me.

But over the last few years of doing this, I’ve exercised my mental “creativity muscles” to the point where creativity is who I am. At the gym, driving down the highway, hiking, kayaking, snowboarding, watching TV, even reading a book. My brain has been trained over time to always be ruminating on something and creating in the background until an idea forms that’s important enough to come to the fore.

Creativity needs to be encouraged. It’s not just something you do; it’s a life you live all day, every day.

Your Turn: How Do You Encourage Greater Creativity?

Do you keep a notebook in your pocket or a Note on your smartphone to jot down ideas? Do you keep a journal every day or paper by your bedside table to write when the mood strikes you? How do you train your mind to be more creative?

Comment below and tell me how you practice greater creativity in your everyday life.

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The Grass is Always Greener…

You know that old quote “The grass is always greener on the other side”?

I justlearned a new variation on it and I LOVE it.

In my last post, I mentioned that I’ve been struggling with negative comparisons—both with myself and others.

I got some really wonderful comments and emails from people sharing their struggles, insights, and more than a few encouraging words. You have no idea how much I appreciated it—it absolutely made my day.

But there was one email that stood out in particular. Someone wrote me back and shared a quote that their (very brilliant and insightful) wife told them.

The quotewas simple:

The grass is always greener where you water it.

Thatabsolutely blew me away.

Think aboutit: we always look elsewhere and see what others have, and that’s what gets us comparingnegatively. The quote “The grass is always greener on the other side” is allabout being content with what we have, to find happiness in our current state.

But thisversion takes it one very important step farther.

It’s notjust about contentment with our current state; it’s about DOING SOMETHING aboutour situation to make it that “greener grass” we want.

I’m thekind of person who HATES people who complain about their situation but don’t doanything about it. If I see a problem, I tackle it head-on and do everything Ican to fix it. (Much to my wife’s irritation, heh.)

So thisquote really resonated with me.

Suddenly,it’s not about me comparing what I have, who I am, how skilled I am with otherswho I see as more successful, smarter, or “better” than me.

Instead, theresponsibility is back on me, reminding me that if I want to be smarter, moresuccessful, or better, I just need to water my own damn grass and improve mysituation.

THAT issomething I can focus on much more easily, a tangible, concrete concept fareasier to wrap my brain around than something as vague as “don’t comparenegatively”.

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Negative Comparisons Are KILLING Me

I hate thefact that I’m always comparing myself with others.

When I lookat other writers, I often think, “Wow, look at how well they write/how muchpeople love their books/how much money they’re making/how happy they seem.”

Then I lookat my own writing, my fan base, my income, and my current level of happiness,and find myself feeling worse because of the comparison.

I’ll admitit’s probably one of my worst flaws—a flaw that I’d say most human being share.

We compareas a means of measuring progress or establishing our place in social hierarchy.Sadly, the comparisons often end up being negative and getting us down.

As I’m wrapping up the Cerberus series and starting work on the Darkblade Assassin rewrite, it’s getting a bit out of hand. I’m not only comparing myself to the books I’m reading and the authors in my social circle, but also the writer I was and who I feel I SHOULD be after all these years.

So, yeah, it’s been a bit of a struggle…

Luckily for me, I ran across an article that talked aboutways to stop making these negative comparisons. The originalarticle was about beauty ideals, but I’m adapting it to my own life as anauthor.

Some of the things suggested include:

Steer your self-worthaway from physical appearance—or, in my case, my appearance as a writer. Thatincludes how well I think my books read in comparison to others, or howbeautiful my covers are, or any number of factors. My worth as a person can’tbe tied into the “appearance” of my books.

Be the judge of what is beautiful—physically and artistically. I LOVED writing the Cerberus series and am LOVING getting back to telling the Hunter’s story. Even if it’s not everyone’s idea of perfection, the fact that it’s inspiring me is enough to make it beautiful art.

Limit the amount oftime you spend on platforms that trigger your tendency to compare. Thankfully,I don’t spend too much time on social media. But I’ll probably be dialing itback even more.

Surround yourselfwith others who promote positivity and live positively. That’s absolutelysomething I want to do. Luckily, I’m a member of some very uplifting author andreader communities, and spending time there does wonders to lift my spirit.

Practice usingpositive talk. That’s probably going to be my biggest “to do” for thisyear. I need to change my inner self-talk so I start talking and thinking morepositively about myself, my writing, my stories, and everything about my authorcareer. It’ll take work, but at least I’ve recognized the need for change, soI’ve taken the first step.

Here’s hoping the rest of 2021 is a better, happier, andmore positive year for me—and all of us.

Your Turn: Do You Compare With Others?

Are you, like me, struggling with negative comparisons? Whatareas do you find yourself comparing in most often? Work, parenting, health, beauty,weight loss, fitness, skills, etc.?

I know I’m not alone in this. We all compare negatively with others. If you’re up for dropping a comment below, I’d love to hear what areas you struggle most with. Sharing it is how we recognize the areas where we need to improve, to be more positive.

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Is always pushing for progress the WRONG choice?

I’m gonna be honest with you: I’m a bit of a workaholic.

Really, it’s easy to get sucked into a project when you love what you do.

I can spend hours working on my writing, trying to polish my stories or hammering out new chapters, or prepping for some new series to work on.

Even over the winter holidays, I planned to get no writing done. This should have been me:

I even have the fluffy slippers!

I still ended up doing some work pretty much every one of the days I should have been taking a “vacation”.

It’s just the way my brain is wired. I’m happiest when I’m pushing toward completing a chapter, book, or series.

But I might be doing myself a disservice…

I stumbled across an article on Psychology Today talking about the importance of doing nothing, and it felt like it was aimed directly at me.

The entire concept of this article was about how our modern mindset of always having to do more, be more, and strive for perfection and excellence is causing more stress and anxiety than ever before. When we get to the point that we’re using our leisure time on work, we’re doing the wrong thing.

Oops. That’s definitely me.

I get sucked into my work because I love it, but there’s also the part of my brain that is anxious about the future and stressed when I feel I’m not doing as much as I could or should be. That’s caused me to lose sleep, skip exercise, sacrifice time with my family, and even impair my own health.

The article shared this passage by the ancient Chinese sage Lao Tzu:

Thirty spokes at the single hub;

It is the empty space which makes the wheel useful.

Mold clay to form a bowl;

It is the empty space which makes the bowl useful.

Cut out windows and doors;

It is the empty space which makes the room useful.

So one of my goals for 2021, along with all the massive productivity and making progress on the Hero of Darkness series, is to do more of nothing.

I’m not going to waste time, but I will be more permissive of my exhaustion, stress, or lack of inspiration. If there are days when I just can’t push myself any harder, I’ll forgive myself for being weak.

On the days when I should be taking time off, I’m going to do just that. I’ll enjoy the time when I’m doing nothing and not always be fretting about how much I could be doing with that time.

I believe, truly, that I will be significantly happier—and a much better writer, husband, and father—for it!

Your Turn: Do You Struggle With Doing Nothing?

Are you like me, and always feeling like you should be doing something? Do you have a hard time relaxing if there is work left undone, or if you feel like you didn’t put in a full day’s work?

Drop a comment below and let me know how you a) struggle with this same thing I do, and b) how you cope with it or push past it?

The post Is always pushing for progress the WRONG choice? appeared first on Andy Peloquin.

We Need to Talk About the Hunter of Voramis…

Everyone’sfavorite half-demon, cursed-dagger-wielding assassin will soon be back.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, 2021 will be the year of the Hunter (that’s got kind of a nice ring to it!).

Those whohave read the existing books up to DarkbladeSavior will know that there is still a great deal more story to be told.All the revelations in his final book opened the door for many more adventures,and I promised that I would write those adventures when the time was right.

And this isnow that time.

Aftercompleting the Heirs of Destiny, Silent Champions, and Cerberus series, it’stime for me to dive back into the world of the Hunter and complete his secondstory arc.

(SPOILERS HERE. Read at your own peril.) His mission for Kharna, the huntfor his daughter, and his efforts to save the world from the Great Devourer allneed to be explored, as well as the ramifications of his discovery that the godsdon’t exist, but are simply Serenii worshipped by the early humans as gods.(END SPOILERS)

Right now, I’m in the process of planning out the secondstory arc. It will be either six or seven books, and trust me when I say thatit is going to be HUGE. New lands to explore, new insights into the myths andmagics of the world, bigger and badder enemies, unexpected allies, andcreatures of legend brought back to life.

Really, though, the part I’m looking forward to most isexploring the Hunter’s relationship with (SPOILER)his daughter (END SPOILER). Afterthe relationships he’s formed with Hailen, Evren, Kiara, Graeme, and others, it’sgoing to be a fascinating journey as he gets to know this person who should bethe most important one in his life, but who he didn’t even know existed untilthe latter half of his first story arc.

All in all, the series promises to be something monumentalin all the best ways, yet still the incredibly personal, narrowly focused storyof a half-demon trying to find his place in a world where he doesn’t belong,slowly opening up to the people around him, and making the connections thatmake life worth living.

BUT FIRST…

I’ve got to go back to the beginning and make some changes.

Since I started this writing journey in 2013, I’ve writtenmore than 40 novels. That’s A LOT more experience than I had when sitting downto pen Blade of the Destroyer (which became Darkblade Assassin).

Over the last couple of years, I’ve come to realize that theearly books in the series have some pretty fundamental flaws—in characterization,description, narrative flow, and more. Things get smoother in the later books,but at least Darkblade Assassin, Outcast, and Protector have what I like tocall “first novel booboos”.

That’s the beauty of being an independent self-publishedauthor: I get to go back and fix them.

By fix, of course, I mean totally overhaul.

I spent the last weeks of 2020 planning a rewrite of thefirst three books in the series. Some parts (Hailen, Garanis, the vault of theCambionari, seeing ghosts) will now be written into Darkblade Assassin, whileother parts (Sir Danna/Visibos, battle with Lord Knight Moradiss) will be fitinto Darkblade Protector.

These books will still have all the elements you love aboutthe Hunter and his emotional and psychological journey, but presented in a far betterpackage, with a story exponentially improved thanks to 5+ years of writingexperience.

I’ll be spending the first 6-8 months of 2020 overhaulingthe existing books (possibly some rewrites to Darkblade Seeker, too, but nosubstantial changes to Slayer or Savior, which will now be combined into justone book). I intend to begin rolling out the series in the summer, if I can finishthe rewrites effectively.

I know you already bought/read the books, but trust me whenI say that these rewritten versions will be absolutely worth another read. Thestory will remain the same in all the ways that matter, but you’ll find it’s anew experience in many ways.

I hope you’ll stick with me on this exciting—and kind ofterrifying—journey first back to the Hunter’s past, then on to his future.

2021 isgoing to be a hell of a year.

The post We Need to Talk About the Hunter of Voramis… appeared first on Andy Peloquin.

A Look Back at 2020 and Ahead at 2021

Well, it’s that time of year again…

I like to take time at the end of every year to look over what I managed to accomplish, to count my blessings for all the good things that continue to outweigh the bad.

I’m not going to talk about how lockdown affected me, how my plans got ruined, or anything else negative. Plenty of that out in the world right now, and we don’t need any more.

Instead, I’m going to talk about all the good things that 2020 brought me:

On the work front:



I finished up The Last March, the final book in The Silent Champions series, bringing that particular series to just under 1 million words.  I wrote Cerberus Books 3-12, with the series finishing at close to 1.2 million words.I started the Deranged and Questing live show, finally getting to not only play Dungeons and Dragons, but do it for an audience.I gave a Villains and Antagonists Masterclass with Wordsmith AcademyI’ve figured out the details for the Hero of Darkness rewrites (more details to come) and have begun planning the remaining 4-7 books that will be required to finish up the series.

All in all, a pretty good year of writing and storytelling.

On the personal front:



I took up kayaking! Summers in Canada are gorgeous, and there’s something like 1,000 lakes within 200 kilometers of my city. I managed to find a kayak in my size (a VERY hard thing) and got some excellent exercise on local rivers and lakes.My oldest son graduated high school, got a job, enrolled in college (starting Fall 2021), and moved out on his own.I managed to be fairly faithful at going to the gym. I managed 3-4 weekly visits on average, though I started the year strong by going 6 days a week for 60 days. A few injuries aside, it was a great year for fitness.I got to spend more time with my wife and kids thanks to the lockdown. We binge-watched a few TV shows, got into a few new board games, played some video games together, and had soe quality hours together.

Nothing too big or fancy, but given everything this year has thrown at us, I’d say it’s a win.

2020 had its fair share of hiccups, and there’s no guarantee that 2021 is going to be any better.

But at least with a brand new year ahead, we can be hopeful that even if the world around us doesn’t improve, we can improve ourselves and our surroundings in at least small ways every day.

Like I’ve done every year, I’m also going to share what I hope to accomplish in the year to come, giving you an insight into my life—both as a man and the author who writes the books you love to read.

My Professional Goals for 2021:



Rewrite and Relaunch the existing Hero of Darkness Books (currently 1-7). Books 1-3 are going to get a major overhauling, and Book 4 will have some edits and rewrites done as well. After writing 40+ books, I know I can write the Hunter’s story exponentially better than I did when I was just starting out, and I’m excited to dive into this project (more details to come in the next blog post).Write (and hopefully release) the Hunter’s second story arc. After the events of Darkblade Savior (Hero of Darkness 6), there is an entire second story arc (4-6 books) that remains to be written. I’m early in the planning stages and figuring out exactly what that second story arc is going to look like, but I’m excited (and more than a little daunted) by the HUGE story that will need to be told in those books.Continue to grow Deranged and Questing. Our twice-weekly D&D show on Twitch is one of the highlights of my week, and I’m excited to bring you more epic roleplaying adventures for another year.Change up my approach to writing. For the last three years, I’ve been very much in a “hurry up and finish” mentality, focused so much on the goal of completing and releasing books that I’ve failed to fully enjoy the writing journey. This year, I’m going to be working hard on changing that mindset. It’s going to be tough, but I’m going to focus on really loving the creative process, enjoying the time I get to spend writing, and worrying less about having to finish really fast for the sake of releasing another book. This might lead to a bit of a financial impact initially, but I believe that ultimately it will make for better-quality books, which will resonate better with readers (and thereby sell better).



My Personal Goals for 2021:



Improve my fitness. I managed to fit in 3-5 weekly gym training sessions pretty much every week of 2020 (barring a few weeks off for injuries), but this year I’m going to focus on making those sessions really good quality. I need to get stronger, increase my flexibility, and up my cardiovascular endurance, and hopefully that will lead to effective weight loss.Spend more time with my family. If the lockdown has had one positive benefit for me, it’s that I’ve been able to spend more time with my wife and kids. Not being able to travel out of country—or currently, out of county—means I need to make the most of the time I have in Canada. I want to find more games and activities to enjoy with my family, cook more delicious meals, and be better at being present and in the moment rather than being too focused on work.Get outdoors more. It’s harder to do in winter, but I’m excited for snowboarding and snowshoeing. Once the weather starts to warm up, I now have a good pair of hiking boots that’ll make exploring the wilderness around my city just that much more possible and enjoyable. Then, when summer comes, my wife and I both have kayaks, which I plan to take out on the water as much as possible.

I’m a simple man with simple goals, but I’m looking forward to another awesome year of enjoying life in Canada and making the most of what I have.

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THE 2020 TRULY EPIC FANTASY BUNDLE

The 2020 Truly Epic Fantasy Bundle – Curated by Kevin J. Anderson

It’s Truly Epic, 2020!

Even in a pandemic, you can still go on an epic quest in your imagination. Your travel companions can stay socially distant as they charge across fantastic landscapes and battle dragons or mythic monsters…all while you stay safe at home with your e-reader.

Kevin J. Anderson (in conjunction with other authors) has curated a Truly Epic Fantasy StoryBundle, with thirteen legendary stories of swords, dragons, wizards, maps, and everything else you need for your quest. You name your own price, a portion of the proceeds goes to a good cause, and you support indie authors. One StoryBundle to rule them all!

Andy Peloquin’s The Renegade Apprentice: Evren’s life as an apprentice priest is an endless torment, but when the chance to escape his slavery arises, he may find his freedom—and his life—cut very short in the dark, dangerous alleys of his city! (HEY, I KNOW THIS GUY!)

Ryan English’s Obstacles is “300” meets “Lone Wolf and Cub”: In a Greek-inspired fantasy world, a veteran soldier finds himself protecting a small group of orphans against bandits, monsters, and worse—and the consequences may be higher than he realizes.

Brian D. Meeks’s Dragon’s Fury: Most dragons crave gold, one dragon wants only power and revenge.

X Marks the Spot, edited by Lisa Mangum, is a swashbuckling anthology featuring a treasure trove of stories about pirates of all kinds and across all genres, from science fiction to historical to fantasy, and more.

Jada Fisher’s Dragon Rider: Myradepf must overcome the odds, and her small stature, if she hopes to fulfill her dream of soaring through the skies on the back of dragon. In the process, she just might save the world.

J.T. Williams’s Of Shadows and Blood: Kealin the Rogue Elf struggles with vampirism in a land where a bloody ideology threatens to destroy his only hope of salvation. Can he find a cure before he becomes like the very demons he fights?

Scott Eder’s Knight of Flame: Tainted by the very element he’s supposed to control, an elemental Knight must overcome a centuries-old tragedy and find the balance to his fire-stoked rage to prevent his clandestine Order’s ancient enemy from destroying all life in modern-day Tampa.

Kevin McLaughlin’s Unbreakable Fury: The last of a cadre of magical warriors who went into retirement when her queen was killed and her kingdom fell, she finds herself dragged back into action when the corruption and chaos threatens her daughter’s life.

Alan Smale and Rick Wilber’s The Wandering Warriors: Two award-winning writers take you on a thrilling romp through time, space, and ancient Rome as a barnstorming 1940s baseball team find themselves fighting for their lives in a deadly ballgame in the Colosseum.

Marissa Farrar’s Through a Dragon’s Eyes: In a world where dragons are extinct, and magic is banned, can four races come together to restore the power of the Dragonstone and the Dragonsayer?

D.H. Dunn’s The Fifth Interdictor: A magically enhanced warrior discovers her life has been an elaborate lie. What would you trade for the truth?

Writers of the Future, Volume 34, contains 12 expertly crafted and award-winning sci-fi and fantasy stories, from humorous to bone-chilling, with bonus stories by Brandon Sanderson, Jody Lynn Nye, and L. Ron Hubbard, and essays on the craft of writing by Orson Scott Card and Jerry Pournelle.

And L.L. McNeil’s Rise of a Sky Pirate: When an opportunity to escape servitude presents itself, Amarah cannot resist the temptation to take it—yet there is no reward without risk, especially when it comes to sky pirates.

All these epic fantasy books will turn your e-reader into a doorstop! And the 2020 Truly Epic Fantasy StoryBundle runs for only three weeks! – Kevin J. Anderson

* * *

For StoryBundle, you decide what price you want to pay. For $5 (or more, if you’re feeling generous), you’ll get the basic bundle of four books in any ebook format—WORLDWIDE.

The Renegade Apprentice by Andy PeloquinDragon’s Fury by Brian D. MeeksObstacles by Ryan EnglishX Marks the Spot by Lisa Mangum

If you pay at least the bonus price of just $15, you get all four of the regular books, plus NINE more books, for a total of eleven!

Dragon Rider by Jada FisherOf Shadows and Blood by J.T. WilliamsUnbreakable Fury by Kevin McLaughlin (StoryBundle Exclusive!)Knight of Flame by Scott EderThe Wandering Warriors by Alan Smale and Rick WilberThrough a Dragon’s Eyes by Marissa FarrarWriters of the Future Volume 34 by David FarlandThe Fifth Interdictor by D.H. DunnRise of a Sky Pirate by L. L. McNeil

This bundle is available only for a limited time via http://www.storybundle.com. It allows easy reading on computers, smartphones, and tablets as well as Kindle and other ereaders via file transfer, email, and other methods. You get multiple DRM-free formats (.epub, .mobi) for all books!

It’s also super easy to give the gift of reading with StoryBundle, thanks to our gift cards – which allow you to send someone a code that they can redeem for any future StoryBundle bundle – and timed delivery, which allows you to control exactly when your recipient will get the gift of StoryBundle.

Why StoryBundle? Here are just a few benefits StoryBundle provides.

Get quality reads: We’ve chosen works from excellent authors to bundle together in one convenient package.Pay what you want (minimum $5): You decide how much these fantastic books are worth. If you can only spare a little, that’s fine! You’ll still get access to a batch of exceptional titles.Support authors who support DRM-free books: StoryBundle is a platform for authors to get exposure for their works, both for the titles featured in the bundle and for the rest of their catalog. Supporting authors who let you read their books on any device you want—restriction free—will show everyone there’s nothing wrong with ditching DRM.Give to worthy causes: Bundle buyers have a chance to donate a portion of their proceeds to the Challenger Center for Space Education!Receive extra books: If you beat the bonus price, you’ll get the bonus books!

For more information, visit our website at storybundle.com, tweet us at  @storybundle  and like us on  Facebook .

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Deranged and Questing: Join us for Our Epic D&D Fun!

I’ve been wanting to play a proper Dungeons and Dragons campaign for years now (15+)!

The storyteller in me loves the idea of being able to make things up as I go, and I’ve always been a proper barbarian hack-and-slash player in whatever video games I play.

So OF COURSE I had to go ahead and start my own campaign.

Thankfully, I found someone else to DM it so I can sit back and enjoy the role-play, and got together a few kickass fellow readers and authors to play along, too.

I call it: Deranged and Questing!

We’ve been going now for almost two months, and it’s honestly been some of the most fun I’ve had, ever!

You can watch all the past episodes stored to YouTube:

Ep 1: Dock Fight

Ep 2: Jailbreak

Ep 3: Ice Giants

Ep 4: Possessed Wolves

Ep 5: More Possessed Wolves

Ep 6: Death and Dreams

Ep 7: Dreams and Ice Sprites

We’re going to be streaming live to Twitch every Monday at 6 PM PST/8 PM CST/9 PM EST, so follow and join in for some insane D&D fun!

Follow on Twitch here: https://www.twitch.tv/andypeloquin

We’ll be going live tonight with a behind-the-scenes episode, so come in and join us for the fun!

The post Deranged and Questing: Join us for Our Epic D&D Fun! appeared first on Andy Peloquin.

How the F*** Did I End Up Here?

Do you ever
find yourself asking that question?

You might
have gone into things with a certain plan—a plan for your day, a plan for your
career, heck, even a plan for your life—but you end up in a totally different
place than you expected!

This
weekend, I visited my brother in Vancouver, and we spent both Saturday and
Sunday hiking around some absolutely spectacular lakes and rivers.

(Goofy guy marring the view of the lake
is aforementioned brother)

On Sunday,
he found a trail along the lakeshore, which was supposed to take us to a
beautiful isolated spot overlooking the lake.

But less
than a quarter of the way along the trail, heavy rains had washed out the path,
so we had to take a detour.

Simple
enough? Absolutely not! What should have been a 60-second trek around a rock
(down a path we didn’t see) ended up being a 30-minute detour deep into the
forest and as lost as one could get while still being within sight of their
destination.

We went up and
down some pretty insane slopes, to where we were literally sliding on our butts
to keep our footing on muddy ground. Finally, after deciding we were going the
wrong way, we pulled out our map and hiked in the general direction of “back on
track”.

The fact that you’re reading this means we survived and got back to where we wanted to go.

But that got
me thinking about my own life…

I never set
out to be an author. I didn’t dream about it as a kid, a teenager, or a young
man.

I wrote
here and there because I enjoyed it, but it was never my dream job.

Like on our
misguided hike, I ENDED UP HERE because of some detours and deviations along
the way:

During
a time of financial hardships in 2010, I got into doing online surveys to make
some extra cash.After
moving cities with no job in 2011, I searched for online work and signed up for
e-newsletters.While
teaching English, I randomly clicked on a Spam email (from one of those
newsletters I’d signed up for) that offered to produce web content and articles
for a website. I had no site that needed articles, but figured I could write
articles well enough.After
writing articles for 2 years, I was earning enough to do it full-time, and I could
move my family to a new city in 2012. Somewhere
along the way, I decided I was one day going to write a book. But it would be a
non-fiction book. I just needed more life experience in order to make it
happen, so it would be something I did in my 30s.In
2013, a friend of mine who owns a publishing company read something I’d written
at the age of 19 and offered to turn it into a comic book. I decided if I could
write something that good BEFORE, what could I do now? That was when I wrote
the comic book script that would eventually become The Last March (The Silent Champions Book 6), which led me
to writing the script that would be Darkblade
Assassin (Hero of Darkness Book 1).

Like our ill-fated hike, my life started out on a certain
path, went way off-track in totally unexpected ways, but ultimately ended up
someplace amazing. Now, I can’t think of anything else I’d want to do more, and
I can’t imagine my life without writing and storytelling.

Sometimes, taking those dangerous, rocky, and steep detours can be terrifying, but pushing through and moving forward might just lead us to truly amazing things in the end!

Your Turn: What Detours Did Your Life Take?

Did you always dream of doing what you’re doing now? Did you
follow a neatly planned career path that led you here? Or did life throw you
curve balls that forced you to adapt, and you ended up someplace totally
different than you expected?

Comment below and tell me
how your life either stayed on track or deviated wildly to end you up where you
are. 

The post How the F*** Did I End Up Here? appeared first on Andy Peloquin.