Legends and Myths of Erâth: Introduction

Although the events described in the novels of The Redemption of Erâth are perhaps the most pertinent to the ultimate salvation of the world of Erâth, there are many, many other important events that have occurred throughout the 30,000 years or more of Erâth’s history. These range from the birth of the race of men and the founding of the Ageless, to the specific details of the War of Darkness that ended the Second Age of Erâth and set in motion the changelessness of the world.

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NaNoWriMo Is Here … But Should I Care?

Note: head over to Goodreads to enter my giveaway for one of ten print copies of The Redemption of Erâth: Exile!

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Tomorrow marks the first day of November, and with the cold air, shorter days and leafless trees comes something of a writer’s festivity: NaNoWriMo.

National Novel Writing Month has been an ongoing tradition for many writers now for almost twenty years; starting in 1999, the goal is to inspire those of us who have always dreamed of writing to turn that dream into a reality. Over the course of thirty days, thousands of people across the globe will attempt to write a 50,000-word novel, averaging 1,667 words a day. Those who complete it will ‘win’ NaNoWriMo, which of course ultimately means nothing but feels great.

The Redemption of Erâth started, as some of you know, as a NaNoWriMo project five years ago in 2011, when I spent the month writing the history and backstory to the series that is now going into its third book. It was an exercise in self-discipline, late nights and overconsumption of caffeine, but it resulted in something that I could proudly call my own: The History of Erâth, a novella-length tale spanning the millennia since the creation of the world of Erâth.

I haven’t participated in NaNoWriMo again since; between my day job and writing the full-length (100,000+-word) novels that make up the actual series of The Redemption of Erâth, I simply haven’t had the time. Also, I often get very depressed around this time of year.

But this year, I feel like I need to take a break. A change of pace. I’ve been working on the third book in the series, Ancients and Death, for over a year now, and although it’s nearing its conclusion, I really want to turn my hand to something slightly different.

The question is, what? Will I actually achieve something that will be worth reading? Or will I have wasted a month of precious creative time writing nothing important at all?

The greatest temptation is to do nothing, of course; finish off the last few chapters of Ancients and Death and move on to the editing phase. I really want to get the damn book finished. But there’s a part of me that wants to delve again into the rich history of Erâth—a project I thought of some time ago is to recount some of the legends and myths of Erâth in a Silmarillion-style compendium of short stories.

There’s also a story that came to me in a dream one night—a mind-bending, hallucinogenic dark story called The Girl Who Killed Herself in Apartment 615. I don’t really know much more about it than that, but it was a very vivid dream and the story sounds cool.

Or I could go off the deep end and write something entirely unrelated to anything I’ve ever written before. Sci-fi, or horror, or an erotic thriller (I hear these especially sell well).

I know what I think I’d like to do, but I’m curious—what would you, my readers, like to see every day throughout the month of November? What would intrigue you the most? Let me know in the comments!

The Redemption of Erâth: The Future of Erâth

I think my bipolar is taking an upward swing, because all of a sudden I’m trying to do a million things at once with regards to The Redemption of Erâth. I’ve sent out advertisements on Facebook, Goodreads and Twitter, I’ve sent advance copies of books to beta readers, and I’ve started reading, writing and editing like crazy. All in a matter of a few weeks. Egads!

Anyway, it leads me to ponder the future of The Redemption of Erâth, and I think the timeline looks something a little bit like this:

  • September/October 2015: Publish The History of Erâth as a free Kindle download and in paperback
  • November 2015: Write Legends and Myths of Erâth as part of NaNoWriMo
  • December 2015: Release the second novel, The Redemption of Erâth: Exile
  • January-March/April 2016: Complete the first draft of the third novel, Ancients and Death
  • March 2016: Publish Legends and Myths of Erâth as a free Kindle download and in paperback

I don’t have much of a plan after that, but that’s already a lot for me to contemplate—especially for someone who never normally has a plan at all!

The good news of all of this is that, if I manage to stick to these deadlines (what a terrifying word!), I can send ARCs out to people—something I failed utterly to do with The Redemption of Erâth: Consolation. Perhaps I can generate a little bit of buzz over the book, and do slightly better than I have so far with Consolation (less than thirty copies sold in over a year). My ideal? Achieve the level of success Nancy Chase has had with her book, The Seventh Magpie. Two thousand copies in six months—incredible!

The hopeful idea here is that, with free supporting material in the form of The History of Erâth and Legends and Myths of Erâth, I can generate more interest in the full-length novels. I had intended to publish these supporting books anyway—I’m just bringing the timeline forward a little.

What do you think? Are you excited for more adventures in Erâth?