Tag Archives: Consolation

One Week To Launch!

In one week, the third book in The Redemption of Erâth series, Ancients & Death, will be released in full!* To celebrate, I’ll be hosting a week-long launch event here and on Facebook, complete with giveaways, guest authors, riddles, and more.

I really couldn’t be more excited. I started writing Ancients & Death nearly two years ago, and it’s finally done, trimmed, edited and (hopefully) ready for you all to read! It’s been over six years since I started the journey to Erâth, and there are a lot of adventures yet to come.

For now, to make it easier to dive into the world of Erâth, I’ve reduced the price of the first two novels, Consolation and Exile, to just $0.99. Additionally, you can actually get the first novel entirely free if you head over to voraciousreadersonly.com and sign up – it’ll be one of the suggested reads if you select Fantasy as a preferred genre.

So swing by Amazon or Apple Books and pick up a copy today – you never know if you might just find your new favorite epic fantasy story between the covers!

* Because of how Amazon deals with print copies, you can technically pick up a paperback copy already. If you’re interested … !

Languishing No More

Those of you who’ve been following me for a time know that I published the first book in the Redemption of Erâth series all the way back in 2014, with the second coming out over two years ago in 2016. And whilst I finished the draft of the third book over the summer of 2016, it’s been languishing in edit hell for going on two years.

Some of that time, of course, was spent away from the increasingly detailed fantasy world of Erâth whilst I worked on my first young adult novel, 22 Scars (published last November). And as much as I’ve been putting effort into publishing, publicizing and marketing this other story, I’ve been longing to return to Erâth and continue the story of Brandyé, Elven, Elỳn and their family and friends.

Over the past few months, I’ve (slowly) spent time revising, cutting and editing book  three of the series, entitled Ancients & Death. It’s at a place now where I believe it’s as good as I can possibly make it, from both a story point of view as well as an editing point of view. I feel like it’s ready for the world, and I want to get it out to you all.

However – if I do so, it’ll be the first time I’ve published a novel without a professional edit. And I’m very reluctant to proceed without it. I’ve used the same wonderful editor for all my novels so far – both fantasy and otherwise – and she’s been instrumental in improving the style, pacing and fluidity of everything I’ve ever written. So why would I forgo her this time?

In a nutshull, it comes down to budget. As good as she is, she’s also expensive – for me, anyway. And in that regard, I’ve come to realize that I need to prioritize my projects. I’m not making any money from writing; I’ve invested far more into my books than I’ve made back (by a factor of hundreds), and as much as I appreciate the vast improvements it’s made in their quality, I just can’t afford it anymore.

So what I’ve had to do is learn from the edits she’s provided, and try to apply the same mentality to Ancients & Death myself. It started with severe cutting; I chopped something around 25,000 – 30,000 words from the original draft. Then I moved onto continuity, looking at the events and timelines to ensure they made sense. Finally, I read through the novel as slowly and in as much detail as I could, looking for every spelling, grammar and typo error I could find.

I think I learned a great deal about structure over the past eight years since I started writing, and I believe the pacing and action of Ancients & Death is far superior to both Consolation and Exile. This is important, because it’s one of the things I’ve been faulted for in the past by both my editor and my readers. I really can’t wait to see what you think of the result here.

At the end of the day, one of the advantages of self-publishing is the ease with which I can put out updates, corrections and revisions should they be found post-publication. But as far as the overall story goes, I’m pleased with it. And I’m ready to share it.

That means that – sooner, rather than later – there’ll be a third installment in the Redemption of Erâth series. And I can’t wait to tell you when it’s going to drop!

Thought of the Week: The weather in Consolation is nicer than here.

This week’s Thought of the Week is already late as it is, and that’s mainly because I just don’t feel like I’ve had any thoughts this week. I had one, I think, just before the weekend, but I can’t remember what it was. I have a list just for these kinds of thoughts – the ones that would make a good Thought of the Week – but I forgot to write it down there, too. In fact, forgetting is a bit of a problem for me. No, I’ve been feeling utterly thoughtless, and not a bit tired; despite getting more sleep than usual, come 8:00 PM and I just need to collapse.

So what’s left to talk about, when there aren’t any other subjects of discussion? The weather, of course.

It’s been beastly here. I’ve spent the better part of my life in climes where 80°F is hot, and a cool breeze pervades on most days. I’m used to a bit of sun peeking through clouds, and lots and lots of rain. Instead, it’s been consistently 95+°F for the past week, with humidity somewhere in the 70% range. I suppose that’s the real killer – the heat I can stand, but the humidity destroys me. It sucks at my soul, I swear. Incessantly sweaty, sticky, muggy and lethargic, even the slightest exertion and I’m absolutely drenched, a sensation I despise. Now, I realize that it could be a lot worse and most of you will say I have no grounds to complain (especially those who live in such unfathomable regions of the world as Texas), but for me, this is intolerable.

They plant these in Cornwall because the English think it's the same as Spain.

They plant these in Cornwall because the English think it’s the same as Spain.

What’s curious is that, in attempting to escape such meteoric oppression, it turns out that I created a world whose weather is, for me, just right: Consolation. Consolation is the homeland of the protagonist of my book, The Redemption of Erâth. Now, I never thought about it until now, but Consolation reflects the kind of weather that I long for. Summers are filled with long, sunny days but not that hot, and the winters are crisp and clean, with just enough snow. Spring is fresh with the scent of flowers and pollen in the air, and autumn ends the year in the warmth of reds and oranges and golden trees. There is rain, but it isn’t humid. It’s a wonderfully dry country, even when it’s wet. A paradox that is only solved by one place in the world: England.

It’s not where I’m from, but it’s where I grew up, and the English weather is my home. The English complain bitterly about the weather, of course – mainly because it’s gray and cloudy and miserable most of the time (much like Consolation in its later years) – but they complain even more vociferously about everyone else’s, and so really those clouds are home, and no true Brit ever felt comfortable in Naples or San Diego, really. That’s why they all retire to Cornwall, where they can pretend an extra two days of sunshine (for a grand total of seven per year, of course) make it a Mediterranean climate and serves as an excuse to plant palm trees.

So I suppose all of this is for nothing, other than to say that without even thinking about it I created a world whose weather reflected my own personal tastes. I find that fascinating, because in all the time and effort I put into creating the world of Erâth, I never once considered why I had the weather be the way it was. I looks like I might have just been homesick.

Those of you who have created worlds (and those of you who can’t stand the weather of the world you’re in) – what is your ideal weather like?

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