J.L. Langland's Blog
February 22, 2022
OOA:Into the Night Audio Book Release Date
Hi,
After some schedule wrangling and delays, we finally have a release date for Oak Orks of the Antilles: Into The Night on Audible.
May 17, 2022.
A bit later than we'd hoped but given these crazy times and all the other sorts of delays, it is understandable.
T-A-G
After some schedule wrangling and delays, we finally have a release date for Oak Orks of the Antilles: Into The Night on Audible.
May 17, 2022.
A bit later than we'd hoped but given these crazy times and all the other sorts of delays, it is understandable.
T-A-G
November 21, 2021
Oak Orks of the Antilles: Into the Night
Hark, younglings! Attend me now, and I shall tell you the tale of the time the mighty Gormegast Horde Eternal finally encountered adversaries worthy of her mightiest warships!
A tale of a young Shaman, a Second Leftenant aboard the indominable Oak Clan Star Ship, Skull Crusher, named Trig Bioblast, and of the fierce and valiant crew who would risk all to defeat an unknown enemy that could not be killed!
It is a tale that spans not only this Cluster, but to the very edge of the Universe and far, far beyond! Of beings Immortal, and implacable enemies fueled by the darkest malevolence. A story that began long ago, before the Redintegration and of the epic wars yet to come that will decide the Horde’s destiny.
Kindle eBook now available for pre-Order:
on Amazon
Paperback and (beta) Hardback coming then as well. Audible will be a few months later.
August 6, 2021
Word Counts: What does "shorter" mean.
So I've been saying for some time that OOA:ITN and COA:ITW are "shorter" books than the main books. Someone asked me what does this mean?
So, best way to measure that is Word Count, which is a bit imprecise because different words have different lengths and page sizes vary. So we just compare on total words (things between spaces)
Book 1: Into The Abyss was just under 241,000 words. About 574 small font Trade Paperback pages.
Book 2: The Heavenly Host was just under 275,000 words About 679 small font Trade Paperback pages.
Book 3: Apostles of Doom was just under under 285,000 words. About 679 even smaller font pages
Now I don't know how long OOA:ITN will be once the Beta Demons finish ravaging it, but writing now it's about 140,000 words, or about half the size off books 2 and 3.
So how does this compare to other books you may or may not be familiar with?
A Game of Thrones is 298,000 words, so books 1 to 3 are a bit shorter than GoT (book 1)
The Return of the King is 137,000 words, or around the same size at OOA:ITN
The Fellowship of the Ring is 187,790 words
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is 257,045, the rest are less than 200,000, with Philosopher's Stone being about 77,000 words.
Dune is, amazingly, only 187,240 which boggles my mind, I'd have thought it much longer.
The Golden Compass is 112,815 words.
So, yes OOA:ITN is "shorter" but it's not exactly a novella.
And as an FYI to those not on KU, the kindle price will be half that of the other books, so $2.99. The paperback, unfortunately won't be half the price, but will be the lowest price of them all. Unless I make the fonts big enough for people over 40 to read it.
The Audible? I have no idea, but should be less. I don't have any control on that
So, best way to measure that is Word Count, which is a bit imprecise because different words have different lengths and page sizes vary. So we just compare on total words (things between spaces)
Book 1: Into The Abyss was just under 241,000 words. About 574 small font Trade Paperback pages.
Book 2: The Heavenly Host was just under 275,000 words About 679 small font Trade Paperback pages.
Book 3: Apostles of Doom was just under under 285,000 words. About 679 even smaller font pages
Now I don't know how long OOA:ITN will be once the Beta Demons finish ravaging it, but writing now it's about 140,000 words, or about half the size off books 2 and 3.
So how does this compare to other books you may or may not be familiar with?
A Game of Thrones is 298,000 words, so books 1 to 3 are a bit shorter than GoT (book 1)
The Return of the King is 137,000 words, or around the same size at OOA:ITN
The Fellowship of the Ring is 187,790 words
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is 257,045, the rest are less than 200,000, with Philosopher's Stone being about 77,000 words.
Dune is, amazingly, only 187,240 which boggles my mind, I'd have thought it much longer.
The Golden Compass is 112,815 words.
So, yes OOA:ITN is "shorter" but it's not exactly a novella.
And as an FYI to those not on KU, the kindle price will be half that of the other books, so $2.99. The paperback, unfortunately won't be half the price, but will be the lowest price of them all. Unless I make the fonts big enough for people over 40 to read it.
The Audible? I have no idea, but should be less. I don't have any control on that
July 2, 2021
OOA:ITN
Hi,
OK, logged on today to see newer interface here at GR, and even though I'd last been on a week or so ago before a short trip, messages from a month ago just now showed up, and questions from a year ago and 2 years ago that I'd never seen showed up.
Sheesh.
Anyway, so, I am wrapping up Oak Orks of the Antilles: Into The Night and hope to hand it over to the Beta Demons to devour/mangle in about a month.
Anyone can become a Beta Demon, but it's not for the feint of heart since they may end up seeing a lot of alternate timelines that get confusing. Details are in the forums at astlan.world
I assume roughly a month for that, a month for editing (editor), 2-3 weeks for formatting and then the Kindle release, the Audible release is typically about 3 months after I get it back from the editor. So we are looking near the late fall of year for the book, early next year for the Audible.
As a reminder:
Oak Orks of the Antilles: Into the Night is a spin off series involving Trig Bio Blast, Shaman of Orkus for the Antilles Cluster. The other shamans met him at the astral pow-wow.
It is written so that people don't have to have read the other books, but it does help, and if you read OOA:ITN first, there are a lot of spoilers.
OOA:ITN is basically another shaman quest for a Doomalogue, but because 1) it is SF 2) it has a lot of its own world building and 3) it takes place over a much longer time frame (space travel is slow even at thousands of times the speed of light) I spun it off.
BUT: It starts near the end of of Book III and continues on into the future, past Book IV, but eventually everything will come back together.
Tom and the D'Orcs are in it, although Tom may not be around as much as people want; but the D'Orcs are. And it is all from Trig's POV. Oh, and of course, someone else sticks his pipe into the book as well.
I did single POV for this and COA:ITW because it makes shorter books and to give people who hate the thousand points of view model something to chew on!
Once that's out the door, it's back to Book IV, hoping for next year on that.
T-A-G
OK, logged on today to see newer interface here at GR, and even though I'd last been on a week or so ago before a short trip, messages from a month ago just now showed up, and questions from a year ago and 2 years ago that I'd never seen showed up.
Sheesh.
Anyway, so, I am wrapping up Oak Orks of the Antilles: Into The Night and hope to hand it over to the Beta Demons to devour/mangle in about a month.
Anyone can become a Beta Demon, but it's not for the feint of heart since they may end up seeing a lot of alternate timelines that get confusing. Details are in the forums at astlan.world
I assume roughly a month for that, a month for editing (editor), 2-3 weeks for formatting and then the Kindle release, the Audible release is typically about 3 months after I get it back from the editor. So we are looking near the late fall of year for the book, early next year for the Audible.
As a reminder:
Oak Orks of the Antilles: Into the Night is a spin off series involving Trig Bio Blast, Shaman of Orkus for the Antilles Cluster. The other shamans met him at the astral pow-wow.
It is written so that people don't have to have read the other books, but it does help, and if you read OOA:ITN first, there are a lot of spoilers.
OOA:ITN is basically another shaman quest for a Doomalogue, but because 1) it is SF 2) it has a lot of its own world building and 3) it takes place over a much longer time frame (space travel is slow even at thousands of times the speed of light) I spun it off.
BUT: It starts near the end of of Book III and continues on into the future, past Book IV, but eventually everything will come back together.
Tom and the D'Orcs are in it, although Tom may not be around as much as people want; but the D'Orcs are. And it is all from Trig's POV. Oh, and of course, someone else sticks his pipe into the book as well.
I did single POV for this and COA:ITW because it makes shorter books and to give people who hate the thousand points of view model something to chew on!
Once that's out the door, it's back to Book IV, hoping for next year on that.
T-A-G
January 15, 2021
Still Here
Ack, it has been a very long time since I've posted here or anywhere.
I have just been extremely busy, the last day I didn't do any work was over Labor Day weekend 2020, otherwise I've been going 10-12 hours per day 7 days a week with my day job. Before that it was Memorial Day.
My apologies for not keeping up with things here at GR.
So, yes, the books are still on track, just temporarily derailed. See last long post for why, and this year was just insane from a work perspective. I am hoping to get that under control and back to writing soon. I haven't written since the summer.
My father's cancer went into remission so I thought I'd have that cleared up, but then work went crazy, and as I start to see the light there, my father's cancer has come back. Although we are hopeful that the treatment that sent it away for a year before, will do so again.
So with luck I should be able to get to serious writing again as soon as I get weekends to write on. At the moment, it's next weekend is always going to be it. But I really mean it for NEXT weekend.
So all plans are still there:
OOA: ITA will be next. Then Book 4 will resume.
I have just been extremely busy, the last day I didn't do any work was over Labor Day weekend 2020, otherwise I've been going 10-12 hours per day 7 days a week with my day job. Before that it was Memorial Day.
My apologies for not keeping up with things here at GR.
So, yes, the books are still on track, just temporarily derailed. See last long post for why, and this year was just insane from a work perspective. I am hoping to get that under control and back to writing soon. I haven't written since the summer.
My father's cancer went into remission so I thought I'd have that cleared up, but then work went crazy, and as I start to see the light there, my father's cancer has come back. Although we are hopeful that the treatment that sent it away for a year before, will do so again.
So with luck I should be able to get to serious writing again as soon as I get weekends to write on. At the moment, it's next weekend is always going to be it. But I really mean it for NEXT weekend.
So all plans are still there:
OOA: ITA will be next. Then Book 4 will resume.
February 1, 2020
Where In The Abyss Is Book IV?
(Reposted from Facebook)
Good question! I've been promising it for a small "human sized" eternity and it hasn't shown up.
Fear not, it is coming, and it will be done faster than Book 1 was written. (That started in the mid-80's and was finally released in 2014)
What's happened?
1) I am writing 3 books that all take place at roughly the same time. DOA Vol. 4, Oak Orks of the Antilles: Into The Night, Chronicles of Astlan: Into The Wilds. This makes things rather complicated as they crisscross a bit, but it's also a lot more writing. Probably not the best idea but...that's what I did.
2) OOA will be out the soonest, and it is the story of Trig Bioblast and the search for the Doom of the Antilles. It would be more like the other quests as a story line, but it's SF and in space, so didn't fit well with DOA and would have been mind boggling POV changes.
3) For book 1? I spent a ridiculous amount of time to write it, first chapters were in the mid 80's most of the book was written in 93, 94. Then I couldn't figure out how to get people out of the city to fight Talarius, and I got my PH.D. and joined the real world workplace and it just lingered until 2013 when I decided it had to be published, so I had Tom & Damien bring the demonic horde "issue" to Lenamare's attention and have them ask him to get rid of them. He knew exactly what to do, whereas I hadn't been able to figure it out.
Even so, I took several months off from my job (I am an IT consultant and work on a contract basis) t get it finished.
4) For each of the next two books I took about 9 months off to write in depth. This created a lot of debt that I am still trying to dig out of.
5) For the current set of books, I really couldn't go into more debt, so I have tried to work and write at the same time and it's almost been too much and taken too long, but it is moving a long.
6) About 20 months ago, my dad began having multiple, different health problems and that was a lot of stress for us all and I couldn't get much writing down. His cancer is now in remission, but he is not yet back to normal. But I got back to my normal job and life.
8) I had hoped to have OOA out last year and then Book IV this year....
7) However, as I mentioned, I'm a contractor and when it rains it pours and when it doesn't, it's a desert. My job has been a monsoon, particularly for the last 4 months where I've been doing 60 to 80 hour weeks. Not much writing time, and I really can't say no, because I need the money to pay off my debt.
8) My hope was that I'd get back on schedule this month, but things are staying very busy. I hope to start writing in late Feb. I hope to have OOA out this summer.
9) Book IV will be out next year if all goes well. Then will come COA
10) After that? OOA and COA are shorter works than DOA. I expect there to be roughly 2 or 3 of each of those...maybe more, we'll see.
11) As for DOA? I know where that's going and it's going to be at least 7 books of roughly the same length as the first 3.
12) When, however, is still the question.
13) Both Book 4, OOA 1, and COA 1 are under contract for audio books.
So, I am very sorry for the long delays, I can only thank you for patience and loyalty, and I will try to be better at keeping you posted.
JLL.
Good question! I've been promising it for a small "human sized" eternity and it hasn't shown up.
Fear not, it is coming, and it will be done faster than Book 1 was written. (That started in the mid-80's and was finally released in 2014)
What's happened?
1) I am writing 3 books that all take place at roughly the same time. DOA Vol. 4, Oak Orks of the Antilles: Into The Night, Chronicles of Astlan: Into The Wilds. This makes things rather complicated as they crisscross a bit, but it's also a lot more writing. Probably not the best idea but...that's what I did.
2) OOA will be out the soonest, and it is the story of Trig Bioblast and the search for the Doom of the Antilles. It would be more like the other quests as a story line, but it's SF and in space, so didn't fit well with DOA and would have been mind boggling POV changes.
3) For book 1? I spent a ridiculous amount of time to write it, first chapters were in the mid 80's most of the book was written in 93, 94. Then I couldn't figure out how to get people out of the city to fight Talarius, and I got my PH.D. and joined the real world workplace and it just lingered until 2013 when I decided it had to be published, so I had Tom & Damien bring the demonic horde "issue" to Lenamare's attention and have them ask him to get rid of them. He knew exactly what to do, whereas I hadn't been able to figure it out.
Even so, I took several months off from my job (I am an IT consultant and work on a contract basis) t get it finished.
4) For each of the next two books I took about 9 months off to write in depth. This created a lot of debt that I am still trying to dig out of.
5) For the current set of books, I really couldn't go into more debt, so I have tried to work and write at the same time and it's almost been too much and taken too long, but it is moving a long.
6) About 20 months ago, my dad began having multiple, different health problems and that was a lot of stress for us all and I couldn't get much writing down. His cancer is now in remission, but he is not yet back to normal. But I got back to my normal job and life.
8) I had hoped to have OOA out last year and then Book IV this year....
7) However, as I mentioned, I'm a contractor and when it rains it pours and when it doesn't, it's a desert. My job has been a monsoon, particularly for the last 4 months where I've been doing 60 to 80 hour weeks. Not much writing time, and I really can't say no, because I need the money to pay off my debt.
8) My hope was that I'd get back on schedule this month, but things are staying very busy. I hope to start writing in late Feb. I hope to have OOA out this summer.
9) Book IV will be out next year if all goes well. Then will come COA
10) After that? OOA and COA are shorter works than DOA. I expect there to be roughly 2 or 3 of each of those...maybe more, we'll see.
11) As for DOA? I know where that's going and it's going to be at least 7 books of roughly the same length as the first 3.
12) When, however, is still the question.
13) Both Book 4, OOA 1, and COA 1 are under contract for audio books.
So, I am very sorry for the long delays, I can only thank you for patience and loyalty, and I will try to be better at keeping you posted.
JLL.
August 29, 2019
2019 End of Summer Sale!
Starting midnight (PDT) Friday August 30th 2019, all three volumes of Demons of Astlan will be on sale for the next week!
Both the US and UK stores will have all three books on sale for half price! This is a great opportunity to introduce your friends to our demons!
If you read the books via KU, then this is a great time to pick up your own permanent copy at half price!
Go Demons!
Both the US and UK stores will have all three books on sale for half price! This is a great opportunity to introduce your friends to our demons!
If you read the books via KU, then this is a great time to pick up your own permanent copy at half price!
Go Demons!
October 6, 2018
Kindle Countdown to Halloween!
Hi,
In the wee hours of the morning of October 8th, all three current books of Demons of Astlan will go on Kindle Countdown Sale in the US and the UK. As with most Kindle Countdowns, they will be on sale for one week (through Sunday) and the price will slowly increase over the week.
All three books will start at 0.99 dollars or pounds and end the week at either USD 2.99 or GBP 1.99
Let your friends know of this great opportunity to pick up a copy!
T-A-G
In the wee hours of the morning of October 8th, all three current books of Demons of Astlan will go on Kindle Countdown Sale in the US and the UK. As with most Kindle Countdowns, they will be on sale for one week (through Sunday) and the price will slowly increase over the week.
All three books will start at 0.99 dollars or pounds and end the week at either USD 2.99 or GBP 1.99
Let your friends know of this great opportunity to pick up a copy!
T-A-G
January 21, 2018
Half Price Demons!
This week Jan 21 to 28 beat the freeze and warm up in the picturesque Abyss upon the magnificent slopes of Mount Doom!
All three Kindle volumes of Demons of Astlan are on sale now for half price in the US and UK stores!
Get them now for $2.99 or read for free with Kindle Unlimited!
All three Kindle volumes of Demons of Astlan are on sale now for half price in the US and UK stores!
Get them now for $2.99 or read for free with Kindle Unlimited!
October 16, 2017
Demons of Astlan: F.A.Q.
Why do the chapters not start over between books?
Demons of Astlan is a single, very long book, split into multiple volumes, hence the chapters continue from volume to volume.
Why are you splitting it up?
A) Same reason stories were often serialized, to get it out the door sooner. Also doing the editing/proofing and beta in sections makes it more manageable.
B) Indie trade paperback books have a maximum length of about 800 pages and cost is based on the number of pages. Thus the “Dead Tree” versions have to be split up and I need to keep the price/book reasonable.
C) Audiobooks are effectively the same, the cost of an audiobook over 30+ hours starts to get prohibitive to record/edit
How long (how many books) is Demons of Astlan?
I estimate that the total book is around 2-Million words, about 6 or 7 volumes.
HOWEVER: There are also going to be several “spin off” books that are independent books, but that contain characters and reference events from DoA.
Where can I find additional details, background, maps, forums and talk to Tizzy?
Astlan.World is the Internet home of Astlan and it’s denizens. The appendices, maps and more are there. There are also forums into which Tizzy randomly inserts himself into the discussion.
Keeping track of all the characters is difficult, is there something that can help?
Agreed. Astlan.world has a “Who’s Who” under “The Books” section. This is pretty rudimentary at the moment.
I am planning on releasing free kindle book(s) called “Tizzy’s Guide to Who in the Abyss is That?” before Volume IV. I may do it in multiple volumes to avoid spoilers.
What are these spin-off books?
Currently, the following are being written, I hope to have them out within a few months plus or minus of v.IV:
Chronicles of Astlan v.I: Into the Wilds is the story of Prince Kristof, 7th in line to the Holy Imperial throne, and now, third in line to the House of Narthan in the Wilds of Eton. CoA can be read without DoA, however, people and events will be crossing over (starting in DoA v.III)
Oak Orks of the Antilles v.I: Into the Night (tentative title) is the story of Trig Bioblast, Tom’s spacecraft based shaman and his quest for several things, including the Doomalogue of the Antilles Star Cluster.
When will Volume IV be released?
There are a lot of factors. My writing schedule and the changes and demands of the Beta Demons. Shooting for first half of 2018.
Will there be an audio book of v.IV?
Tantor has contracted to do the audio book of v.IV. Contracts for the other books and later volumes will be dependent on the sales of the current audio books.
Will the audio book of v.IV be available with the release of v.IV?
The audio books take a good three to four months after they receive the complete draft. My timeline between getting the book back from the editor and publication is 2 to 3 weeks. Not enough time for Stephen & Tantor to record the audio version. So rather than hold off on releasing v.IV, the audio book will just be a few months later.
How long does it take once you finish writing the first draft?
Once I finish a first draft, the book is released to the Beta Demons who poke holes in it with their razor sharp claws. That can take a good 3 months or more. It really depends on how crappy the first draft is and how much the beta demons hate it.
After the beta demons are done with the book it needs to go to the editor, assuming she has been scheduled and is available, she typically needs 6 to 8 weeks (based on the first 3 books--shorter spinoff books not so much)
Once I get the edited version back, I need about 2 to 3 weeks to get it formatted and ready for publication.
Demons of Astlan is a single, very long book, split into multiple volumes, hence the chapters continue from volume to volume.
Why are you splitting it up?
A) Same reason stories were often serialized, to get it out the door sooner. Also doing the editing/proofing and beta in sections makes it more manageable.
B) Indie trade paperback books have a maximum length of about 800 pages and cost is based on the number of pages. Thus the “Dead Tree” versions have to be split up and I need to keep the price/book reasonable.
C) Audiobooks are effectively the same, the cost of an audiobook over 30+ hours starts to get prohibitive to record/edit
How long (how many books) is Demons of Astlan?
I estimate that the total book is around 2-Million words, about 6 or 7 volumes.
HOWEVER: There are also going to be several “spin off” books that are independent books, but that contain characters and reference events from DoA.
Where can I find additional details, background, maps, forums and talk to Tizzy?
Astlan.World is the Internet home of Astlan and it’s denizens. The appendices, maps and more are there. There are also forums into which Tizzy randomly inserts himself into the discussion.
Keeping track of all the characters is difficult, is there something that can help?
Agreed. Astlan.world has a “Who’s Who” under “The Books” section. This is pretty rudimentary at the moment.
I am planning on releasing free kindle book(s) called “Tizzy’s Guide to Who in the Abyss is That?” before Volume IV. I may do it in multiple volumes to avoid spoilers.
What are these spin-off books?
Currently, the following are being written, I hope to have them out within a few months plus or minus of v.IV:
Chronicles of Astlan v.I: Into the Wilds is the story of Prince Kristof, 7th in line to the Holy Imperial throne, and now, third in line to the House of Narthan in the Wilds of Eton. CoA can be read without DoA, however, people and events will be crossing over (starting in DoA v.III)
Oak Orks of the Antilles v.I: Into the Night (tentative title) is the story of Trig Bioblast, Tom’s spacecraft based shaman and his quest for several things, including the Doomalogue of the Antilles Star Cluster.
When will Volume IV be released?
There are a lot of factors. My writing schedule and the changes and demands of the Beta Demons. Shooting for first half of 2018.
Will there be an audio book of v.IV?
Tantor has contracted to do the audio book of v.IV. Contracts for the other books and later volumes will be dependent on the sales of the current audio books.
Will the audio book of v.IV be available with the release of v.IV?
The audio books take a good three to four months after they receive the complete draft. My timeline between getting the book back from the editor and publication is 2 to 3 weeks. Not enough time for Stephen & Tantor to record the audio version. So rather than hold off on releasing v.IV, the audio book will just be a few months later.
How long does it take once you finish writing the first draft?
Once I finish a first draft, the book is released to the Beta Demons who poke holes in it with their razor sharp claws. That can take a good 3 months or more. It really depends on how crappy the first draft is and how much the beta demons hate it.
After the beta demons are done with the book it needs to go to the editor, assuming she has been scheduled and is available, she typically needs 6 to 8 weeks (based on the first 3 books--shorter spinoff books not so much)
Once I get the edited version back, I need about 2 to 3 weeks to get it formatted and ready for publication.
