M.L. Larson's Blog, page 21

Dwarf's Ransom now available for pre-order!

Dwarf's Ransom is now available on Amazon for pre-order, and will be available to purchase or borrow on March 1st.

Jari, a young dwarf from an isolated kingdom, is sent out to find his trouble-making brothers. After being saved by a stranger from being trampled by a horse, Jari finds himself with a new companion in this strange land. As they search for Jari's kin, they find more trouble made than either of them had anticipated. Soon, Jari's missing brothers are implicated in the murder of a god, making their return home all the more urgent. But when they are finally found in a distant land, troubles only seem to get worse for Jari and the companions he's picked up along the way.

Also featuring Loki and Odin, Dwarf's Ransom explores Nidavellir and gives a glimpse of Jötunhemr as the three of them find their paths intersecting.  While Jari looks for his brothers, Odin searches for Kvasir's murderers, and the only thing keeping them from murdering one another is Loki, caught in the middle.

You can find Dwarf's Ransom on Amazon.

Deceived by a God now on Amazon!

Loki is travelling; wandering aimlessly across the realms when he meets a young elf named Óttarr. He strikes a bargain with the elf to do some work in exchange for a bed for the night, a meal, and a chance to bathe. Rather than doing the work he promised, Loki decides to bathe first, and takes Óttarr with him to help. It isn't long before Óttarr comes to learn Loki never intended to do the promised work at all, and had his own motives for their meeting.

Available for $2.99, or to borrow for free with Kindle Unlimited.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T8IBXSI

A History of Magic

 

Las Vegas is a city in flux. People come and go, either because they think they can win it big and leave all their problems behind at the tables, or because they feel like whatever they're missing in their lives, they'll find it under the neon lights and marquees of the Boulevard. For those who were born there, it's just another city where college is too expensive, jobs are too few, and very little happens.

Carly is one of those few, struggling to finish a degree she doesn't know what she'd do with when she got it. To distract herself from the stress of college life, she goes to club meetings at an off-strip magic shop, where amateur magicians gather and show off for one another.

Gunnar meanwhile brings his act from Iceland to Las Vegas, and finds himself in need of a new assistant. When an audition in an off-strip hotel brings them together, Carly soon finds there are things more stressful in her life than college credits when she gets caught up in the middle of keeping her dream job and keeping her life in one piece in the wake of Gunnar's ulterior motives for moving out to the desert.

A History of Magic is now available on Amazon for $4.99, or you can read for free with your Kindle Unlimited subscription.

Branching out

I am about to start an experiment, of sorts.  One which I hope will go well.  Over the last week or so, I've been talking to people about erotica, and the possibility of partaking in a little side venture there.  Since I've already taken a crack at the romance genre, and then completely deconstructed and subverted it, I figure it might be a bit of fun to try this as well.

Erotica will not be published under the same name as my more mainstream stories, but it will feature the characters and settings from Lay of Runes.  This is because they're the only characters I really care enough about at this point to devote to a series of sexual shenanigans.  You'll be able to find information on the new pen name on this page.

Houses and things

After much time spent convincing him to ignore his father's opinions on the matter, Robin Hood and I are going to start looking into buying a manufactured home after the new year, when things are a little more financially stable for us.  The idea of living in a trailer park just isn't good enough for his dad, but after fairly obviously trying to orchestrate a divorce between us, his opinion is no longer relevant.

We've been doing some research into the area, and you can get a three-bedroom house for less than it would cost to rent a one-bedroom apartment for two years.  There are so many of them around here that have sat empty for months, and even years, because people are hilariously against the idea of paying property tax and land fees.  Property tax which averages about $2 a month, and land fees which are around $300 a month.  Considering monthly rent for apartments here starts at around $1000 a month, yes.  This is something we want to do.  We're saving up to have at least $12,000 (about 50% the average value in this area) saved up for a down payment and moving costs.  Like furniture.  If we really wanted to, we could wait a little longer and save up the just buy a place outright, but really, we want to get out of parents' houses as quickly as possible.  We're having a hard time renting because a roommate kind of trashed our apartment and the management stuck all the charges and bills onto Rob's name.  Which is actually exactly the reason my brother wound up buying his place.

But it'll be nice to not have to deal with renting, and being able to do what we want to the place, instead of being stuck with what the management wants it to look like. 

Sky Treader is now on Barnes and Noble!

If you're a Nook reader, and like to get your books from Barnes & Noble, Sky Treader is now in their catalogue for pre-order.



And don't forget.  To celebrate the release of Sky Treader, I am giving away up to $75USD in free books on Tumblr.  See this post for more information.  Winners will be chosen at 12pm (PST) on 1 September, and notified immediately.

A Breath of Fiction, by Gregory M Fox

Available on Smashwords.
Price: Free!

A Breath of Fiction is a curious little anthology of 200 stories, each containing exactly 200 words.  With several themes running throughout, the stories themselves all stand alone.  About life and everything unexpected that happens in it, A Breath of Fiction is a pleasant little read, and perfect for keeping around for those odd few minutes each day when you have nothing else to do.  Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, some mood whiplash may occur.

That was a surprise

Look what I found in my email this morning!

I'm not sure how many other people received this in their list of Kindle books to check out, but I'm hoping it made it to more than just me.


In other news, Sky Treader is getting 5-star reviews on Amazon.  Honest reviews are awesome, and help promote my story.  If you purchase the story on Amazon, or later, when it becomes available from other retailers, please try to leave a rating and review.

Sky Treader now available on Amazon and iBooks!

Also, with an improved cover design (thanks, Flynn!)


Sky Treader has been made available on all devices capable of using Amazon or iBooks apps.

Click here for the iBooks page.
Click here for the Amazon page.
Click here for the Smashwords page.


Adding the book to your library on Smashwords will not take you to an order page until 1 September.  When it does, use the code VW69R to get the book for free! This code only works on Smashwords, and cannot be redeemed through any other retailer.

Pre-ordering through iBooks will add the book to your account, but you will not be charged until 1 September.

Schedules and Pre-Orders

I need to start setting myself a schedule that I follow daily, something which I'm very bad at.  I'll get involved in one thing, and then twelve hours later, it's all I've done all day.

I also need to get better at prioritising what I work on each day.  Maybe set aside a schedule for which projects get worked on which days.  Unless I get a particularly good idea for one of them.  Then I'll work on that one.  But I'm very bad at writing every day as it is.  That's what I need to work on the most.



Separate to this, I have some good news! Sky Treader is available for pre-order!

A young Thor seeks to make a riding partner in Loki, but Loki has his own plans for his day: sleep. Unwilling to accept Loki’s laziness, Thor drags him from bed and takes him to Vanaheim for drinking and revelry. When Loki does not agree with Thor’s idea of fun, he takes Thor on an adventure of his own, picking up horses, dwarfs, and gryphons as they trek across the realms.

You can pre-order the short story now through Smashwords for $2.99.  It will also shortly be available through other retailers, such as iBooks, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo for the same price.  When it becomes available through those channels, I’ll post an update.
But guess what!  There’s also a coupon you can use on Smashwords, good through 7 September.  When you place your order, use the code VW69R to receive the book for free.  Pre-ordering the book, even with the coupon, will help bump me up to the top sellers list when the book is officially released on 1 September. To pre-order the story, click on the Add to Library button.  It will ask you to create an account, so it knows whose library to add the story too.  Once the book becomes available on 1 September, you will be able to download it from your library.