Ruu McKinney's Blog

Podcast Ahoy

Everyone loves a good podcast. In the years since my hiatus began, the number of podcast listeners has grown leaps and bounds. Ebook readership, on the other hand, has not fared nearly as well.

It makes sense. We spend so much of the day stuck in a commute, waiting in line, or just trying to get things done. While these are all great times to catch up on a podcast, they aren’t really condusive to reading. (Seriously, don’t read while driving…)

I never really paid audiobooks much attent...

Site changes and updates

The Ruu McKinney website is going through a bit of clean up this week. Some pages are being trimmed, while others are just being updated to reflect current information. The biggest change however reflects the Gemsong Saga website.

Gemsong Saga Website

The Gemsong Saga website is no more. Well, actually, the domain still exists, it just redirects here. This shouldn’t be taken as a bad omen for the series. The change is due to a couple of factors:

Firstly, editing the website was tedi...

Births, Pandemics, and lack of sleep

According to the date of my last post here, it’s been almost a year since I updated anything. Has it really been that long? With births, pandemics, and a general lack of sleep, time has really flown by. With things finally starting to settle down though, perhaps it’s time I got off my ass.

Doing Work On the go

When it comes to writing, I’ve always been a bit old school. I like to sit down with a good fountain pen and heavy weight printer paper and just let things flow. With an energeti...

Make Social Distancing easier with free books

As people across the country buckle down to weather the Coronavirus, social distancing has proven a difficult thing for many to get used to. People are feeling isolated, and depression is on the rise. To help everyone get past this latest hurdle, many authors and publishers across a variety of media are offering large sales and deep discounts. If were all going to be cooped up, having something to do is essential.

While I may not be a world famous author, Id like to try and do my part as...

Smashwords Read an Ebook Sale is here

Smashwords Read an Ebook sale is going on from March 1-7 over at Smashwords.com. Take advantage of huge discounts on the entire Ruu McKinney collection and catch up on some spring reading.

The Smashwords Read an Ebook sale is a great opportunity to try out some of my work. My Candle and Quill creative writing digest will be available in its entirety for free, and both volumes of the Gemsong Saga will be 75% off. If you’re curious about my writing, this is a deal you can’t miss!

The post...

Save 25-50% with the Smashwords' Year-end sale

Smashwords.com is running its annual year-end sale, and all of my works are listed for 25-50% off their normal retail prices.

Now is an excellent time to get started on the Gemsong Saga series, or to grab the newly released sequel, “A Man Named Zephyr”. Looking for something a bit lighter? My collections of short stories in the Candle and Quill series are great for light reading .

While the year-end sale applies to all digital editions of my work, it only lasts until January 1, so act fast!

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A Man Named Zephyr Now Available

It is with great pleasure that I announce the release of Gemsong Saga Volume 2: A Man Named Zephyr. It is currently available at smashwords, and will be distributed to all of the usual retailers within the next few weeks.

A Long Road, but worth the ride

The journey of writing the second entry to the Gemsong Saga series has been much longer than expected. That said, I don’t feel like the time has been wasted. When I’ve released books in the past, there was always something that I felt could...

A Man Named Zephyr update

While it has been a long time coming, I am happy to announce that as of five minutes ago, editing for A Man Named Zephyr has been completed. It has been a very long road from start to finish, but I suppose that just makes finally finishing things all the sweeter – Even if it is something like a year and a half behind schedule…

Moving Forward with A Man Named Zephyr

Moving forward, A Man Named Zephyr will need a final re-reading to catch anything I may have missed. From there, it is just a cover design away...

Good news!

I return from my update hiatus bearing good news! At long last, the manuscript for the second volume of the Gemsong Saga series is now complete!

While there is still a good bit of editing to do, I’ve cleared the biggest hurdle, and it should all be downhill from here. Once the final editing is done, it will simply be a matter of cobbling together cover art and formatting!

As before, expect an ebook version to be released before a print copy, and expect to find both at the usual places. No r...

Gemsong Saga Volume 2 Teaser

Welcome to the first Gemsong Saga Volume 2 teaser! What follows is a short excerpt from the first chapter of volume 2. While the first round of editing may be complete, it’s not a final version. Errors may be present, and content may change in the final release. Please keep that in mind. If you missed the original preview article, it can be found here.

Gemsong Saga Volume 2 Teaser

Jance, Zephyr, and Drake, are in pursuit of several noble agents who have kidnapped a young girl. As they make...