Friday, June 29, 2012

Half of Forever

I'm proud to announce that Half of Forever, the sequel to Hollenguard, has released on Kindle and Paperback. It is available on Amazon.com, but also at my eStore (link above this post).

Everything went off without a hitch and I got my book out within my release window, which means NaNoWriMo awarded me with 5 free copies. They should arrive around July 10, though Amazon's delivery schedule has been known to be faster than their estimates. I'm really excited to get a copy of this book into my hands.

Not that I'm going to read it right away... after proofing the story two dozen times I really need a break from it. I'm confident that it is a high-quality job, though, and I'm looking forward to reviews and impressions from readers.

That being said, drop me a line as you read it! Tell me what you think! Yell at me! Praise me! Anything! I am eager for feedback, so hit me with it.

As always, thank you all very much for reading.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Spring Break Sale!

Hello, fans and friends!

To celebrate the finished first revised draft of Half of Forever, I'm placing Hollenguard on sale from Friday, March 30th to Sunday, April 1st. The book will be FREE on Kindle for the entire weekend while I take a much-appreciated vacation to visit some very dear friends in Colorado.

As always, thank you all very much for reading.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

The Long Dark

The sale yesterday was very successful, and I'm thrilled to have the book in the hands of so many new readers. Now it's time to get back to work on revising the sequel. I'm beginning to believe that I just might push up the publishing window to late Spring. We'll see how things go.

As always, thanks for reading.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Piers and Me

Piers Anthony has written about Hollenguard in his FeBlueberry newsletter.

I held off writing about this until now for a few reasons, the largest of which was my growing excitement bordering on alarm that Piers Anthony was actually reading my book.

A little background, first. Piers Anthony has had a giant impact on my literary life. The first book I can ever remember reading was Vale of the Vole, and I had to be about 8 years old at the time. It was just before I moved from where I'd grown up, and fantasy novels became a way for me to deal with the fact that everything I'd ever known had just changed drastically. I've since read several Xanth novels, On a Pale Horse, and I'm currently reading his Mode series, starting with Virtual Mode.

So Hollenguard carries a lot of his influence. Piers Anthony has always been supportive of young writers, as evidenced by his exhaustive work on his website chronicling places where you can go to get your book published. Back in July I sent him an email, and on the same day I heard back. Sorry, he said, but he was heavily involved in proofreading some of his work and would be until the first of the year.

The fact that Mr. Anthony had written back to me in the first place was awesome in and of itself. After the first of the year I thought I would send him one more letter, asking how his proofing was going and whether I could share my story with him. To my delighted surprise and horror he replied that, yes, he was between novels and would be happy to read it.

You can read his reaction in his newsletter, linked above. I've really grown through this interaction with Mr. Anthony, and it gives me encouragement to forge ahead with what I started. I hope one day to be able to pay this forward to a young author, and give him the same encouragement that Piers has given to me.

Thanks, Piers!

Saturday, January 28, 2012

The revisions begin

Half of Forever is receiving its first read-through and revision by me. I've gotten some preliminary feedback from the unrevised first draft, and it's been pretty positive. The story is exciting to me, and I took a lot of risks with the plot and the characters. Writing it has definitely helped me to grow as an author.

Some day I'll probably look back on this first trilogy of books I ever wrote and quietly think to myself how much better they could have been. But I don't think I'll ever experience quite the same rush of excitement as I have while writing them. No class and no amount of studying could have prepared me to write quite as well as simply sitting down and delving into the art. Every chapter teaches me something.

These characters and their struggles have become dear to me, and I'm looking forward to seeing their story reach its conclusion.

As always, thanks for reading.