We are officially returning to business after a one month hiatus following the medical emergency and death of my brother, Patrick. But that’s not the big news, see below for six big announcements.
- #1 – Our store (for ordering signed copies from me) is once again open. We can’t ship on the weekends (no postal service in the Valley) – and we currently aren’t at home), but if you’ve been waiting to place orders physical books will go into the mail starting on Monday and ebooks can be delivered starting today.
- #2 – The Indie Movie Premier (featuring Robin and I, Will Wight, Travis Baldree, Andy Wier, Bryce O’Conner, and a bunch of others will be in Luray on July 18th. If you want tickets send an email to the movie’s producer Adam Grandy (ascottgrandy@gmail.com) and he can hook you up. Or if you want to get a digital or CD version of the movie you can “late back” from this link.
- # 3 – Robin and I are in Chattanooga TN for the next three days at the Con Nooga Convention. I’m the literary guest of honor and I’ll be doing three solo sessions on different aspects of writing: (a) WorldBulding, (b) Writing Relatable Characters, and (c) Starting your Story. Robin will doing two sessions: (a) How Much Will I Make and (b) Kickstarters. Then we’ll both be in a Q&A session. We also have abooth in the exhibitor halll (W-11) where we are giving away free hardcover editions of The Death of Dulgath. I will also be signing any books that people bring (even if by another author :-). If you don’t see us at the booth or a session, just send an email with the subject: MEETUP IN CHATTANOOGA and we’ll set a time and place to see one another. For more information on times of the session, see the ConNooga Guide or this link.
- #4 – While the ebooks and audiobooks of Drumindor have been released for several months (ratings: 4.8 with 933 on Audible, 4.6 with 299 on Amazon, and 4.43 with 1,979), the printed copies are finally nearing our shores. We are expected to start shipping copies bouch directly from us on March 14th. These are not yet in our store (because we don’t have the copies), but you can pre-order them from here. There are both deluxe limited editions and regular hardcovers available. Pre-orders for the book are also up at sites like Amazon, but those won’t ship until August! So if you want your copies now, order directly from us.
- #5 For more than two years, Robin has been helping to coach an author on the business side of writing. She (Emilie Nikota, aka delemhach) started out on the serialized fiction site, Royal Road, where her The House Witch series found more than 4,000 followers and 1,000,000 views. Emilie has released seven books to date which were originally signed by a small press before fully considering the implications of that action. Since then, Robin has been helping her expand her career. Some of the things they have been doing together is (a) obtaining an agent – as she want’s to go hybrid with a big-five publisher with at least one project (b) self-publishing her next series (c) book distribution for her next series, (d) obtaining an audio deal for nearly a half million dollars (e) getting a UK rights contract with Penguin Random House (f) multiple translation contracts, (g) running a Kickstarter.
As you might imagine, the amount of time and effort Robin has put in with Emilie, is a testament to how strongly she feels about Emilie’s writing ability and prospects for a long and profitable career. As with all authors, Robin (and I) never take any money for our help. So, if you enjoy cozy fantasy (like Legends and Lattes) with a good dose of humor and romance, please check out the consider backing the Kickstarter (it’s already hit it’s first stretch goal and it’s less than $500 away from the second one.
- #6 And now for the really big news. There is a new Elan series coming: After the Fall! As you might imagine this series will slide in after the events of The Rise and Fall series and before the Riyria Chronicles. Some of the characters you can expect to see are: Jerish, Nevrik, Esrahaddon, Mawyndulë, Elinya, and of course some new ones as well. And yes, there will be tie-ins between this book and The Cycle series.
At present this is slated to be a three-books, and the first book is essentially completed. Why have you not heard of this before? Well, this is my first joint-writing project. As you know, I’m VERY protective of my tales, and while I have the highest degree of confidence in my partner for this, I wasn’t going to announce it until it was completed and I was satisfied with the results. That happened yesterday when I read the final climax, and I can now say with confidence this book will be released.
As for when, we don’t yet know. There are many ducks to put in a row including when can we get on Tim Gerard Reynold’s schedule for recording and we hope to have Marc Simonetti do the cover. There is also some minor edits that I have to work on with the other author, and then Robin has to do her alpha read.
Is it possible it’ll drop in 2025? Maybe – but 2026 is more likely. I would like to have at least half of book #2 written before the first book drops so my co-author doesn’t feel deadline pressure. Right now this announcement (and a placeholder Goodreads page) is all that exists publicly. But if you hit the “Want to Read” button on the Goodreads page, you’ll be notified when it goes live. And, of course, you can sign up for our newsletter, where we’ll announce it’s Kickstarter and release dates.